Presented by Lawrence E. Shapiro, Ph.D.

The secret language of children is the language of emotional communication.

This language is governed by a different part of the brain, called the limbic system, than our normal thoughts and conscious behaviors, which take place in the neocortex or thinking part of the brain.  The language of emotions is sometimes expressed in ways that may be confusing and even counter-intuitive to the ways that we typically  think about children.  But as many researchers have found, the language of emotions is a true language and it can be an important key to helping children with their emotional development.

There have been many books written about how to talk to children about important topics, but in fact only 10% of emotional communication is expressed in our words. The other 90 percent of our emotional meaning comes from the behaviors that accompany our words, including gestures, eye contact, posture, voice tone and inflection, and so on. As any expert on communication will tell you—negotiators, trial lawyers, politicians, sales people, and customer-service staff—a person’s non-verbal behavior speaks much louder than his words.  This is even truer with young children, who obviously have more limited language abilities.

As this lecture explains, the secret language is expressed in children’s non-verbal behavior, and also their art, their stories, and their play. The techniques that are used to speak this language were once thought to be the sole province of psychologists and psychotherapists with years of training.  But that is a naïve and even misleading point of view.  Anyone who cares for children can learn how to speak their secret language—and it is important that they do so. Through the secret language adults can build stronger emotional bonds with children; they can inspire more cooperative and responsible behavior; they can determine a child’s problems or needs, long before symptoms might appear; and they can help a children with their emotional healing. And they can do all of this in just 15 minutes a day!

In this lecture, Dr. Shapiro will discuss and demonstrate more than a dozen ways that we can speak the secret language of play to children.

You will learn how an awareness of a child’s body language can reveal his true emotions, and how you can use your own body language to form a closer bond with children and to get more cooperative behavior.

You will learn how both written and oral stories can be used to develop a child’s self-confidence, ease his anxiety, and teach him important values.   You will even learn how to influence his dreams!

You will learn how simple games, which can be played almost anywhere, can help children talk about their feelings, control their anger, and develop the social skills that are so important to their sense of self-worth.

You will learn how art activities can be used to help children overcome such problems as a divorce, a serious illness, fears and shyness.

Dr. Shapiro will explain how the secret language is the key to raising emotional intelligence. When adults learn how to stimulate children’s emotional intelligence, they give them a head-start in developing their self-confidence, in forming friendships, and in achieving school and work success.