TEACHING AND ASSESSING THE LANGUAGE OF SOCIAL SUCCESS

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TEACHING AND ASSESSING THE LANGUAGE OF SOCIAL
SUCCESS

• Tricia S. Jones, Ph.D.
• Temple University
• tsjones_at_temple.edu
• Tel/fax [phone]
• School Psychology Conference
• March 6, 2009

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Objectives

• Introducing basics of nonverbal communication
• Understand nonverbal communication skills as
  central to emotional competence
• Recognizing nonverbal social skills deficits
  dyssemia and impacts on children
• Review Assessments for dyssemia
• DANVA
• Emory Dyssemia Index
• Link nonverbal skills to effective conflict
  management
• Demonstrate some activities for developing
  nonverbal competence in children

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What is this person communicating?
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Nonverbal Communication

• NVC non-linguistic communication
• can be universal
• can be spontaneous or strategic
• Multi-channel and simultaneous

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THE MEHRABIAN EQUATION
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words
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Dimensions of Nonverbal Communication

• Two dimensions
• Involvement/Immediacy
• Involvement is the indication of level of
  engagement in interaction
• Immediacy is the indication of the degree of
  liking or disliking of other
• Dominance/independence is an indication of
  status, control or lack of control

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1. Kinesics Body movement
Types of Nonverbal Communication

• Emblems- substitutes for spoken words
• Illustrators-support spoken words
• Affect displays- emotions
• Regulators- regulate interaction
• Adaptors- behaviors/actions dealing with social
  anxiety (self object)
• Posture-body orientation stance

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2. Proxemics study of how we use and manage
space
Types of Nonverbal Communication

• Edward T. Hall identified 4 cultural distances in
  US
• Intimate space 0-18
• Personal space 18 4
• Social space 4 - 12
• Public space 12 and greater
• What happens if someone is inappropriately in our
  space?

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3. Vocalics Use of voice. Vocal sounds that are
not words
Types of Nonverbal Communication

• Quality of the voice
• Volume how soft or loud voice is
• Pace/rate how quickly or slowly we speak
• Intonation inflection, accent
• Pitch high to low
• Segregates uh-huh, shhh, mmm
• Silence/pauses

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Types of Nonverbal Communication4. Haptics Use
of touch

• Where are we permitted to touch others?
• How does this change by relationship?
• With what impact?
• What is the meaning of the touch?
• What are your comfort zones for touch?
• How is touch used to convey
• dominance/control?
• liking/involvement?
• Rules of touch relate to
• Culture
• Context
• relationship

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Properties, Nature Function of Nonverbal
Communication

• Intentionality (one of the key principles)
• Nonverbal behaviors can be communicated
  intentionally or unintentionally.
• Nonverbal behavior can be perceived as being
  communicated intentionally and/or
  unintentionally.
• What are the possible consequences of this? Does
  it matter?

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IMPLICATIONS

• Communication can occur even when a person does
  not intend to send a message (Seinfeld example)
• Whether we intend it or not, people may attach
  meaning to our nonverbal behavior

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Dimensions of Nonverbal Communication
Kinesic Proxemics/ Vocalics
Chronemics Haptics

• ? Talk time
• Ability to interrupt
• Power to decide
• Use of silence

• ? relaxed
• Expansive gestures
• Affect
• Attentive

• ? More better space
• Ability to invade others space

• Louder
• Faster
• deeper

Dominance/ Independence

• ? Forward leaning
• Attentive
• Positive affect
• less expansive gestures

• ?Distance between speakers
• Touch returned

Involvement/ Immediacy

• Louder
• Faster
• variety

• Adhere to politeness norms

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NVC the Language of Social Success

• Nonverbal Communication is primary channel for
  communicating and understanding relational
  messages
• Palo Alto Group, Watzlawick, Beavin and Jackson
  Pragmatics of Human Communication
• Nonverbal Communication critical to person
  perception and attributions
• Blink, Gladwell, etc.

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Key Skills in Emotional Competence/ Social and
Emotional Learning
Recognizing ones emotions and values as well as
ones strengths and limitations
Managing emotions and behaviors to achieve ones
goals
Making ethical, constructive choices about
personal and social behavior
Forming positive relationships, working in
teams, dealing effectively with conflict
Showing understanding and empathy for others
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Emotional Awareness

• Ability to identify, label, and articulate ones
  own emotions
• Ability to accurately decode the emotional
  expressions of others
• Ability to appreciate that
• people experience
• multiple emotions
• simultaneously

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Emotional Perspective Taking

• Emotional perspective taking understanding how
  someone feels about what is happening
• Empathy ability to feel what someone else is
  feeling
• Caring taking action to reduce the negative
  experience of the other

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Strategic Expression

• Controlling impulses
• Delaying gratification
• Masking emotions
• Helping yourself feel better

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Nonverbal Social Skills as Critical

• All of the key skills of emotional competence
  that deal with social interaction presume the
  ability to effectively communicate nonverbally
• Encoding and decoding nonverbal cues
• Contextual sensitivity

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Link Between SEL and Academic Achievement

• Zins, Weissberg, Wang Walberg (2004), Building
  Academic Success on Social and Emotional Learning
  (SEL) What Does the Research Say?
• Higher math, literacy and social studies skills
• Higher achievement test scores and grades
• Greater reading comprehension
• Better problem solving and planning ability
• Higher academic motivation

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Link Between SEL and Pro-social Behavior

• Fewer absences and improved attendance
• Reductions in aggression and disruptive behavior
• Verbal aggression
• Physical aggression
• Aggressive orientation
• Higher class participation and involvement in
  peer activities

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Important Web Resources for SEL

• www.casel.org Collaborative for Academic Social
  and Emotional Learning, a great all-purpose site
• www.csee.net The Center for Social and Emotional
  Education focuses on providing research
  information about the effectiveness of SEL
• www.Edutopia.org George Lucas Educational
  Foundation provides video and CD-Rom resources
  --learning modules ready for downloading and use.

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Why is this Important for School Psychologists?

• Nonverbal social skills are learned primarily
  during infancy through elementary school years
• Most schools do not teach nonverbal social skills
  and should
• Teaching SEL requires teaching nonverbal
  communication competence

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Examples of NVC Skills in 3-10 year olds

• 3-5 year-olds develop ability to label emotional
  expressions.
• Conceal and falsify displays of emotion by age
  3-4
• Elementary school children learn to follow rules
  of space and touch
• Elementary school children learn to show and
  read cues of liking and disliking
• Begin using and deciphering non-literal messages
  at age 4 (kidding and sarcasm).

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Nonverbal Social Skills Deficits

• Poor NVC skills may reflect a learning deficit
  called Dyssemia.
• Inability to read emotions may be due to mild
  autism -- Aspergers Syndrome.
• Nonverbal social skills disorders are associated
  with ADHD and ADD.
• Research indicates that education and training
  make a difference

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Dyssemia

• Dyssemia is a difficulty in using nonverbal
  signs or signals.
• Dyssemic children
• Have difficulty sending and reading nonverbal
  cues of emotion, space, and liking/disliking
• Dont understand how to engage in social
  interaction
• Are often seen as weird or off-putting by
  other kids (and even teachers and adults)

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Dyssemia How Common Is It?

• About 10 of children and adults have dyssemia
• About 7-10 of children and adults are eusemic
  (have extraordinary ability to read and use
  nonverbal social cues)
• The vast majority (80) of children and adults
  fall somewhere in between
• Most children will benefit from learning
  effective nonverbal communication

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Great Books on Nonverbal Social Skills and
Dyssemia
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KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS DYSSEMIA ON OPRAH
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ASSESSMENT WITH DANVA
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Diagnostic Assessment of Nonverbal Ability (DANVA)

• Tests receptive (decoding) and expressive
  (encoding) nonverbal abilities on four subscales
• Facial expressions
• Paralanguage/voices
• Postures
• Gestures

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Diagnostic Assessment of Nonverbal Ability
(DANVA) - Receptive

• Child and Adult Versions
• 24 stimulus cues for each subscale
• 12 male
• 12 female
• High and Low Intensity cues equally represented
• Cues demonstrate four emotions
• Happiness
• Anger
• Sadness
• Fear

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Diagnostic Assessment of Nonverbal Ability
(DANVA) - Receptive

• Convergent Validity
• Test of Nonverbal Cue Knowledge (TONCK) (Rosip
  Hall)
• Profile of Nonverbal Sensitivity (PONS)
  (Rosenthal)
• FACES (Ekman and Friesen)
• Interpersonal Perception Task (Archer)
• Issues About Cultural Sensitivity (African
  American) (Collins Nowicki, 2001)

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DANVA - Expressive

• Children are asked to imagine a social situation
  (e.g., asking someone to play) and asked to
  express specific cues
• Make a happy face when doing it
• Use a sad voice when doing it
• Psychologist/Counselor trained to rate and code
  expressive cues
• Problematic for several reasons

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Assessment with Emory Dyssemia Index

• While DANVA is designed for individual
  assessment and clinical application Nowicki and
  Duke felt a need for an assessment that could be
  administered to larger numbers of people for
  easier and faster screening by psychologists,
  teachers, and counselors
• EDI was designed to meet this need and is
  available in a version for children (EDI-C) and
  adults (EDI-A)

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EDI-C

• Modeled after CBCL
• 42 item other-report rating instrument to assess
  a childs frequency of behaviors associated with
  types of nonverbal communication (e.g.,
  proxemics)
• Validated with DANVA
• Simplistic scoring (higher score suggests more
  possibility of dyssemia or NVSSD)

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EDI-C and DANVA together

• EDI-C basic screening tool completed by teacher,
  psychologist, counselor
• High scores on EDI-C signals appropriateness of
  DANVA assessment with child
• EDI-C can be used as follow-up assessment after
  nonverbal social skills training

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Conflict Resolution Education in Teacher Education
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CRETE Funders

• US Department of Education, FIPSE Program (Fund
  for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education)
• JAMS Foundation
• George Gund Foundation
• William and Flora Hewlett Foundation

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CRETE Mission

• CRETE works with teacher education at pre-service
  and in-service levels to develop teachers
  critical skills in conflict education/social and
  emotional learning and classroom management.

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What is CRE?

• CRE programs include a variety of efforts which
  share various emphases
• An understanding of conflict
• Social, emotional and cognitive processes related
  to constructive conflict management
• principles of conflict resolution
• skills required to enact constructive conflict
  management

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CRE Course USDE/NASP

• Managing and Resolving Conflicts Effectively in
  Schools and Classrooms was developed through the
  National Training and Technical Assistance Center
  for Drug Prevention and School Safety
  Coordinators, through partnership with NASP and
  through a contract with the U.S. Department of
  Educations Safe and Drug Free Schools Office.
  The course is available on www.creducation.org

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Nonverbal Communication and Conflict

• Nonverbal communication can
• Create perceptions of conflict
• Escalate conflict
• De-escalate conflict
• Nonverbal communication is
• more important than verbal communication
• in determining productive or destructive conflict
  management

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HOSTILE ATTRIBUTIONS
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NEGATIVE RECIPROCITY
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FLOODING
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NVC AND TEASING
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NVC AND BULLYING
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RECONCILIATION

• Non-threatening and supportive behavior creates
  an emotional climate conducive to reconciliation

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Critical Nonverbal Skills to Teach Young Children
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PIE in the SKY

• Sending and receiving messages of
• Power, Involvement, and Emotion
• Skills and Knowledge for our Youth

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DISPLAYS OF EMOTION
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DISPLAYS OF POWER
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THREATENING NVC

• Staring and glaring
• Invading personal space
• Touching
• Pointing
• Raising voice
• Smirking
• Laughing

• Turning away
• Puffing up
• Mocking
• Patronizing
• Interrupting
• Shaking head
• Rolling eyes

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NON-THREATENING NVC

• Keeping distance
• Smiling
• Bowed head
• Gaze avoidance
• Constricted body positions
• Soft tone of voice

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DISPLAYS OF INVOLVEMENT
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Call to Action

• We should enhance our competence to teach and
  assess childrens nonverbal social skills