The importance of eye contact with young children
Eye contact is essential for interpersonal relationships so you must maintain it with your child.
Eye contact is essential for interpersonal relationships, but even more so with young children! Proper eye contact plays a very important role in people’s non-verbal communication. Good eye contact in Western culture means that you have confidence in yourself , it helps to communicate your emotions and it also conveys to the other person that you are interested in what you are talking about at a given moment.
By teaching young children how to make better eye contact, you can give them the communication skills necessary to build healthy relationships. From now on you will begin to understand the importance of teaching your children good eye contact, being a good example so that later, they will know how to establish proper eye contact with the people with whom they interact in their day-to-day lives.
REASONS THAT CAUSE BAD EYE CONTACT
Young children can avoid eye contact for many different reasons . Identifying what reason is responsible for a child’s poor eye contact can help you figure out the best way to improve it. Young children who feel angry or fearful can show their emotional turmoil by avoiding eye contact.
Poor eye contact is also a symptom of certain conditions, such as an attachment disorder, a sensory processing disorder, or autism . In some cases, lack of eye contact doesn’t even indicate a problem. Certain cultures, such as those of Japan and Latin America, teach children to show respect by not making eye contact.
Index
IMPROVE EYE CONTACT
Teaching a young child how to improve eye contact is done by being a good example . When talking to a child, always have good eye contact. When you talk to him or when he talks to you, make sure you look him directly in the eye. If you stare at the television or computer while talking to him, he may think that it is not necessary to look people in the eye when communicating.
Come down to eye level to facilitate eye contact. If you avoid looking people in the eye because you get nervous, try to improve this because your child will too. If you don’t but your child does, pressuring him to improve his eye contact can make the problem worse by making him feel self-conscious. Instead, work to boost her self-esteem, describe her behavior in positive terms, and give her the space she needs to feel like making good eye contact.
SENSORY OVERLOAD
Young children with autism or a sensory processing disorder may avoid eye contact , in part, because they feel stressed by sensory input. Finding ways to lessen their sensory overload makes it easier for them to make good eye contact.
Talk to an autistic child while she is swinging. As long as he’s having fun, the rocking motion can help him look you in the eye. Because your toddler may lack the language skills to tell him when he’s stressed by sensory input, change the environment if you notice that stimuli such as fluorescent lights or the sound of scratching pencils make him uncomfortable.
THERAPY
In some cases, therapeutic help may be needed to improve your child’s eye contact. Occupational therapists use play activities to teach young children ways to automatically and appropriately respond to sensory stimuli that stress them. If a young child has an attachment disorder, you can avoid eye contact as a way to keep people at a distance. Therapy that helps you rebuild bonds with your caregivers can help you become more comfortable with the emotional connection generated by looking people in the eye.
Dr. Tabriella Perivolaris, Sara's mother and fan of fashion, beauty, motherhood, among others, about the female universe. Since 2018 she has been working as a copywriter, always bringing to her articles a little of her experience and experience as a mother and woman.