Learning About Body Language - More Information
Our facial expression, posture, tone of voice and gestures let those around us know how we are feeling without us having to say a word. That’s because our emotions are expressed very fluently by our bodies - in other words, body language. These visual cues enable us to identify how other people are feeling and respond in a considerate way. Skills in reading body language are central to forming and keeping healthy relationships and are therefore important to our own emotional wellbeing. As well as projecting our emotions to those around us, how we hold and use our bodies also has an effect on how we are feeling. Research has shown that when we adopt particular facial expressions and emotional gestures our opinions and mood are affected. Most of us gained the ability to read body language as young children and we generally use this skill without thinking about it but there are benefits to looking at this knowledge in a more considered and analytical way. In this section of the website you are going to look at a few areas of body language:
Observing others – identify how others are feeling and building a vocabulary to describe what you see.
Body language key elements – Look at facial expression, eye contact, posture, gesture and tone of voice.
My body language – increase your ability to be aware of what your body is doing and feeling.
Body language in art – interpret artworks by reading the poses of characters in paintings and building stories around these.
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