Do you know what nonverbal language is? Even if you can’t define it, you speak it every day through your postures, gestures, facial expressions, and tone of voice, and you must constantly read these same signals from others. In fact, nonverbal messages can carry up to 90% of the meaning of human interaction and contribute significantly to social, academic, and professional success.

Yet even though we recognize the importance of nonverbal communication, we have generally left the teaching of this essential language to chance. Now parents and teachers can help children develop nonverbal skills so that they will be able to communicate more effectively and to interact with others more successfully.

In Teaching Your Child the Language of Social Success, clinical psychologists Marshall Duke and Stephen Nowicki and educator Elixabeth Martin describe and explain the methods and rules of nonverbal communication. Together they have created an easy-to-use guide which offers definitions and techniques for assessing a child’s strengths and weaknesses in this unspoken realm, as well as case studies, illustrations, and exercises for teaching or improving nonverbal skills at home or in the classroom.

Few things cause parents more worry than whether their children have friends and are well integrated into their social communities. While some kids seem to relate to others and make friends easily, others have more difficulty. A small number of children remain friendless or struggle to make and keep friends.

In Starting Kids Off Right, clinical psychologists Stephen Nowicki, Marshall Duke, and Amy Van Buren offer parents, teachers, and caregivers insights—gathered from decades of professional experience—into the hows and whys of relationship building from infancy up to the age of twelve. Written in easy-to-understand, jargon-free language, the book begins with overviews of social development, human relationship theory, and the role of nonverbal language in forming relationships. The book is then broken down into chapters by developmental stages: infancy (birth to two years), childhood (two to five years), and juvenile era (five to ten years).

Within each section the authors look at the expectations and opportunities—as well as special challenges—of building, deepening, and keeping relationships at every stage of child development. To make the text even more accessible, they have included numerous illustrative scenarios and exercises called “parent skill builders.” The result is an easy-to-use guide that clearly demonstrates techniques for assessing a child’s strengths and weaknesses in developing relationships. It shows parents how to start kids off right with healthy relationship-building skills, as well as how to help their children become more confident in using those skills as they mature.

Remember the kids who just didn’t fit in when you were a child? Maybe they stood too close or talked too loud. We called them hurtful names and they never understood why. Clinical psychologists Stephen Nowicki, Jr. and Marshall Duke call these children dyssemic, and they have some ideas about how to help them.

Dyssemic children do not comprehend nonverbal messages in much the same way that dyslexics do not correctly process the written word. Nonverbal language plays a vital role in our communication with others, and children who understand or misuse it may face painful social rejection, which becomes a part of their lives for the rest of their lives.

In Helping the Child Who Doesn’t Fit In, Nowicki and Duke reveal the range of dyssmia that may affect a child, and show parents and teachers how to simply assess the extent of a child’s problems. Simple exercises at the end of each chapter offer guidance for educating yourself and your child nonverbally.