The Importance of Non Verbal Behavior in Giving Instructions to Children

Abstract

The need to train parents of non compliant children to give clear instructions has been well documented in the literature (e.g., Robetts, McMahon, Forehand, & Humphreys, 1978). The focus to date, however, has been on the content of what is said, and not the non verbal aspects of instruction giving. In the current study, eight clinic and eight non clinic mother child pairs were observed. The non verbal elements of (i) distance from child, (ii) body arientation of mother, (iii) eye contact between mother and child, (iv) tone of voice, and (v) mother's orientation towards objects involved in the instruction were all related to the rate of child compliance.