Since I did not have a recorder, I decided to rent a movie that I had never seen before titled Diary of a single mom (Townsend, 2009). Also to rely strictly on non verbal cues, I resisted reading the description of the movie. In the opening scene the setting appeared to be in a warm sunny city near a beach with lots of palm trees. The first characters to be introduced in this movie were a woman, a boy about 10 years old, and a young girl about 6 years old, all African American. The three emerged from a cab and stood facing a two story stucco building holding hands. The woman is not wearing make up, her face looks weary, she is casually dressed wearing a pair of slightly wrinkled jeans, a long sleeve button down shirt that is open exposing a tee shirt, and tennis shoes. The children are casually dressed and neat in appearance. While looking up at the building, the woman smiled. Next she turned towards the boy and girl, smiled and gazed at them. The children reciprocated the same. The scene then switches to where they are inside standing behind a heavy set Caucasian man, wearing a floral print shirt and a summery short brim straw hat with a band around it. He is unlocking a door with some keys and talking. They enter in. The woman enters with arms folded and looks around. The man continued to talk while extending his arms as if he was showing the place to the woman. The woman looks around the room, smiles and then unfolds her arms. Next she motions her arms and hands to tell the children to go. The children run throughout the house and return smiling. While the boy says something, his hands are moving up and out. His eyes are wide opened with a big smile on his face, and his mouth movements are big.
The non-verbal cues I observed in this opening scene included several of what O’Hair & Weimann (2009) refer to as codes of non verbal communication, namely gestures and body movements, facial expressions, eye behavior, and physical appearance. It appears that there is a connection between the woman, boy and girl because they are holding hands as they approach the building. The gaze that the woman gave the boy along with the smile was warm and conveyed a feeling of love. O’Hair & Weimann refer to this as “affect displays”, one of the five body movements categories (p. 109). Additionally was the gesture of touch. O’Hair & Weimann refer to the study of touch as “haptics”. The holding of hands in addition to the warm smile and gaze, communicated that the relationship between these three people was intimate. Of the several types of touch these people conveyed the Love-Intimacy touch. Because of the love that was conveyed I presumed that the woman, boy and girl were a family, perhaps starting a new life in a new apartment. Because of the way the woman is dressed and the condition of the apartment, I perceived that this family's financial resources are limited.
After the man unlocked the door and they entered the apartment, the nonverbal cues I observed between the woman and the man included facial expressions and eye movements. While talking to the woman, the man raised his eye brow on two occasions while removing his glasses. The woman kept her distance and her arms were folded a lot. For example, the folded arms of the woman conveyed the feeling of being in a new environment, not knowing what to expect. But after looking around, the woman unfolded her arms conveying that she was now feeling at ease. The boys wide opened eyes (facial expression p. 110), wide hand movements, and wide mouth while speaking communicated to me that the boy was talking about something big, that he was excited, and pleased or happy about the space.
So to summarize what I perceived relying solely on non-verbal cues, I presumed that this movie was about a low income family starting a new life in a new apartment. I perceived that the man was either the owner or manager of the building and that his role was to show the woman the apartment.
After viewing the movie again with sound, my presumptions were right, the woman was the mother to the two children and they were moving into the new apartment. And I was right about the man’s role, he was the owner. I was also right about the boy being happy and pleased with the new place. And the big arm movements reflected his words expressing that he estimated the new place to be 274 sq. ft larger than their previous place. This was another example of illustrating. But, due to adding sound, I learned that the woman’s name was Ocean and that she had been hired to be the on site manager/ repair person for the building. I also learned that the man was coming on to the Ocean. He made comments about how good her kids looked and stated that she looked good too. Then when he talked about her responsibility to make light repairs, he mentioned that he needed to be repaired too.
If I had already been acquainted with the characters in this movie, there is the probability that I would have known that the mother was moving and that she was looking for a job. Also if there was a conversation going on between Ocean and the owner, I would presume he was making a pass at her. However, in my opinion, being familiar with people and situations is still not cause to make presumptions.
My “aha” moment in response to what I learned is that visual cues do not provide enough information to have all the facts. And so as an early childhood professional, if I am going to be an effective communicator, for accuracy I must incorporate both verbal and non verbal forms of communication in order to get the full picture.
References
Robert Townsend. (Producer). (2009). Diary of a single mom [Motion Picture]. [Written by Robert Townsend]. Image Entertainment.
From what I read in your post, the verbal and non-verbal statements made by the characters were consistent, although the extent of the expression was difficult to discern with only non-verbal cues. This was an interesting exercise! Thanks for your thoughtful post!
ReplyDelete