Rosie and I went to the library and checked out a kid's book on nonverbal communication. It was pretty general, but it served to introduce the idea, which fascinated her. "I had no idea people did most of their communicating this way!" she exclaimed. (Factoid from the book.)
"Tell you what," I said, "watch carefully, and every time you can see me or someone else talking without words, and you can tell me about it, I'll give you a quarter." She got a money-counting bank for Christmas.
"REALLY?!" Oh, total excitement.
So, she's concentrating on eyebrows; frowning, waggling, etc., and has earned a dollar so far. She can't tell what is meant by the expressions she sees, but she's learning to recognize that one's going on. Some of them I've been a bit stumped to explain - ok, example. In The Princess Bride, there's this one scene where Buttercup finally knows the Dread Pirate Roberts is really Westley. He's explaining to her why she should not have doubted him, and he waggles his eyebrows at her, first lifting them high and then creasing them together. Sheesh! It took me a few rewinds to figure out what the hell that meant and explain it. I think it was that he wanted to show that he was earnest and sincere, but was worried that she wouldn't believe him. But I'm not 100% sure. Complicate that with the fact that the expression is an exaggerated one in a funny movie, by an actor. Dang.
Well, at least we're having fun and learning.
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