Language development

Dr. C. George Boeree

Language is one of the most amazing things that we are capable of. It may even be that we -- Homo sapiens -are the only creature on the planet that have it. Only the dolphins show any indication of language, although we are as yet unable to understand them. We seem to be built to speak and understand language. The specialized areas of the brain, such as Brocas and Wernickes areas, suggest that genetics provides us with, at very least, the neurological fo undations for language. Linguistics is, of course, a whole separate subject matter, but it does overlap with psychology quite a bit, especially in regards to language development in infants and children. The ability young children have of learning a language -- or even two or three languages simultaneously -- is one of the indications that there is something special about our brains at that age. It all begins in infancy. From birth until around 6 months, babies make a great deal of noise. They squeal, squeak, growl, yell, and give us raspberries. And they coo. Cooing is basically the production of what will later become vowels (a, e, i, o, and u). From 6 months to about 10 months, they produce somewhat more complicated sounds called babbling. First, they practice their vowels more precisely, starting with the round, back vowels (oo, oh, ah...) and working their way to the unrounded front vowels (ee, eh, ay...). The first consonants are h, m, and b, which can be combined with the vowels to make syllables. Soon, they add p, t, d, n, w, f, v, and y. A little while later, they add k, g, and ng. Then they start adding s and z. It takes a little longer for babies to get sh, ch, j, and the infamous th sounds. The very last sounds are l and r. This is why you hear them pronouncing works as oddly as they sometimes do. Fis does fine for fish, soozies for shoes, Wobbut for Robert, Cawa for Carla, and so on. But keep in mind that they can perceive far more than they can pronounce -- something appropriately called the fis phenomenon. They will not be able to say certain words, but they wont put up with you mispronouncing them! One of my daughters, for example, used the syllable y (with a nasal a) to mean shoe, sock and even chair -- but understood the difference quite well. Mothers (and fathers) play a huge part in forming the childs language. Even if we are preprogrammed in some way to speak language, we need to learn a specific language from the people around us. Mothers typically adjust their speech to fit the childs level. This is called motherese. It is found in practically every culture on the planet, and it has certain common characteristics: The sentences are very short, there is a lot of repetition and redundancy, there is a sing-song quality to it, and it contains many special baby words. It also is embedded in the context of the immediate surroundings, with constant reference to things nearby and activities that are going on here-and-now. Motherese often involves a subtle shaping called a protoconversation. Mothers even involve infants who do little more than coo or babble in protoconversations:

Mother Look! (getting child's attention) What are these? (asking a question) Yes, they are doggies! (naming the object) (mom laughes) Yes, doggies! (repeating)

Child (one year old) (the child touches the picture) (the child babbles, smiles) (the child vocalizes, smiles, looks at mom) (the child vocalizes, smiles)

(laughs) Yes! (giving feedback)

(the child laughs)

Moms also ask questions like where is it? and whats it doing? Any response at all is rewarded with happiness! Of course, the conversation becomes more meaningful when the child can actually form his or her own words. By 10 months, most kids understand between 5 and 10 words. The fastest 1/4 of them have up to 40 words! From 12 to 18 months (or thereabouts) is called the one word (or holophrastic) stage. Each word constitutes a sentence all by itself. By 12 months, most kids can produce 3 or 4 words, and understand 30 to 40. Again, there are some kids who understand and even use as many as 80! By 14 months, the number of words understood jumps to 50 to 100, and even the slowest 1/4 know 20 to 50. By 18 months, most kids can produce 25 to 50 words on their own, and understand hundreds. Two characteristics of this stage are overextension and underextension. For example, the word hat can mean just about anything that can be put on your head, a goggie applies to just about any animal, and dada (much to the embarrassment of moms everywhere) pretty much means any man whatsoever. On the other hand, sometimes kids engage in underextension, meaning that they use a general word to mean one very specific thing. For example, baba may mean MY bottle and my bottle only, and soozies may mean MY shoes and no one elses. There are certain common words that show up in most childrens early vocabularies. In English, they include mama, daddy, baby, doggy, kitty, duck, milk, cookie, juice, doll, car, ear, eye, nose, hi, bye-bye, no, go, down, and up. There are also unique words, sometimes actually invented by the child, called idiolects. Identical twins sometimes invent dozens of words between themselves that no one else understands. Between 18 to 24 months (approximately), we see the beginnings of two word sentences, and telegraphic speech. Here are some common examples, showing a variety of grammatical functions taken over by simple conjunction of the two words: see doggy, hi milk that ball, big ball daddy shoe (i.e. daddys shoe), baby shoe (i.e. my shoe) more cookie, more sing two shoe, allgone juice (numbers and quantities) mommy sit, Eve read (subject-verb "sentences") gimme ball, want more (making a request) no bed, no wet (negation) mommy sock (subject-object "sentences," i.e. mommy get my sock) put book (verb-object "sentences," i.e. you put the book here) After 24 months, children begin to use grammatical constructions of various sorts. Here are some in their usual order of development: I walking (-ing participles used as verbs) in basket, on floor (prepositions) two balls (the plural) it broke (verbs in an irregular past tense) Johns ball (possessive s) There it is (the verb to be) A book, the ball (articles) John walked (verbs in the regular past tense) He walks (third person singular of verbs) She has (irregular third person singular) It is going (the progressive formation of verbs) Its there (contractions) Im walking (complex verbs) Notice that simple irregular verb tenses learned before regular tenses! These things are by no means restricted to English, or to any particular language: They are universal. For example, all children begin with telegraphic sentences:

Man clean car (The man is cleaning his car) Obachan atchi itta (Obachan ga atchi e itta, "my aunt went that way," in Japanese) Articles (in languages that use articles) are learned as a general idea first, and only refined later: uh = a, the (see uh car?) uh = un, une, le, la in French duh = die, der, das, etc. in German Grammatical gender is not an easy thing to learn, ether. French masculine and feminine words and German masculine, feminine, and neuter words are just a matter of memorization. The same difficulty applies to different classes of verbs. Aspect (such as differentiating between things that are done once and for all, and things that are done repeatedly -- the perfect and the imperfect) is learned before tense (past-present-future). Tense is actually quite difficult, even though as adults we take it for granted. There do seem be languages that are easier for children to learn, and others that are more difficult: Some languages (Turkish, Hungarian, and Finnish, for example) use many suffixes to indicate a variety of grammatical and semantic qualities. These suffixes are very common, complete syllables, and fully regular-and are learned easily and early. On the other hand, some languages (e.g. Chinese, Indonesian, and to some extent English) prefer to use small words called particles (e.g. the, of, in, and, and so on). These tend to be learned late, because they have no meaning of their own and are often unstressed and unclearly pronounced. Notice, for example, that "is" and "not" are often reduced to 's and n't! A third group -- which contains most European and Semitic languages -- have a mixed system, including lots of very irregular, unstressed endings and particles. If you recall the effort you put into remembering the German article or Spanish conjugations or Latin declensions of the nouns, you realize why children have a hard time learning these things as well. Language learning doesnt end with two year olds, of course. Three year olds are notorious for something called over-regularization. Most languages have irregularities, but 3 year olds love rules and will override some of the irregulars they learned when they were 2, e.g. "I go-ed" instead of I went and "foots" instead of feet. Three year olds can speak in four word sentences and may have 1000 words at their command. Four year olds are great askers of questions, and start using a lot of wh- words such as where, what, who, why, when (learned in that order). They can handle five word sentences, and may have 1500 word vocabularies. Five year olds make six word sentences (with clauses, no less), and use as many as 2000 words. The first grader uses up to 6.000 words. And adults may use as many as 25,000 words and recognize up to 50,000 words! One of the biggest hurdles for children is learning to read and write. In some languages, such as Italian or Turkish, it is fairly easy: Words are written as they are pronounced, and pronounced as they are written. Other languages -- Swedish or French, for example -- are not too difficult, because there is a lot of consistency. But other languages have terribly outdated spelling systems. English is a clear winner among languages that use western alphabets. We spend years of education on getting kids to memorize irrational spellings. In Italy, on the other hand, spelling isn't even recognized as a school subject, and "spelling bees" would be ridiculous! And then there are languages that don't use alphabets at all: Chinese requires years of memorization of long lists of symbols. The Japanese actually have four systems that all children need to learn: A large number of kanji symbols, adopted centuries ago from the Chinese; two different syllabaries (syllable-based "alphabets"); and the western alphabet! The Koreans, on the other hand, have their own alphabet with a perfect relationship of symbol to sound. http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/langdev.html

Copyright 2003, C. George Boeree

Can humans communicate with animals?

by Jessika Toothman
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1. Can humans communicate with animals? 2. Communication with Nonprimates? 3. Lots More Information 4. See all All About Animals articles

Primate Image Gallery Kanzi really seems to know his stuff. See more pictures of primates. AP Photo/Steve Pope

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How do meerkats communicate? How many words do dogs understand? Curiosity Project: Biodiversity and Evolution Puzzles

Koko the gorilla wowed the world with her ability to learn sign language and converse with her handlers, but not everyone was convinced. Many experts have questioned the validity of Koko's example, as well as other case studies that test animals' communication abilities and thought processes. They point to possible flaws in the experiments, such as the potential for rote learning, mimicry, reaction to unconscious cues in the examiners' behavior and assumption on behalf of the

handlers. Researchers have since worked to counter doubters by conducting further studies in more controlled conditions. But putting aside the possibility of error in the testing process, let's look at some interesting cases of human interactions with animals that, if actually displaying direct communication, could have amazing implications for our understanding of language and cognition in the animal kingdom. As we go along, keep in mind that the question of what constitutes communication and when that concept slips into the realm of actual language isn't so simple. The case of Kanzi, a bonobo chimpanzee, is one such example. Kanzi lives at the Great Ape Trust research center near Des Moines, Iowa and has been acquiring communication skills since he was an infant. At first, psychologist Sue Savage-Rumbaugh was trying to teach Kanzi's mother how to use a special keyboard she'd developed to sidestep some of the control problems that had sparked controversies after Koko's training. But it proved to be little Kanzi who was picking up the most knowledge -- and doing it from simply being in the room, not the focus of direct attention. So Savage-Rumbaugh decided to instruct Kanzi in the same way human children learn to pick up language skills. The bonobo spent his days engaged in normal activities with adults who spoke to him and taught him corresponding lexigrams (abstract symbols that represent written words) as the need for them arose. Kanzi proved an excellent student and an eager participant in daily social interactions, learning hundreds of lexigrams and understanding thousands of spoken words. And although he, along with his little sister, Panbanisha, still have their fair share of critics, Savage-Rumbaugh claims they can also understand grammatical concepts, refer to the past and the future, invent figures of speech and imagine how the world must seem from another person's point of view. It appears Kanzi has communication skills about on par with a 2-and-a-half-year-old human, which might not seem like much but is far beyond what some thought was possible. But what if we venture outside the small family of great apes? Can humans communicate with nonprimates? We'll dig into that idea on the next page.

http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/life/zoology/all-about-animals/humanscommunicate-with-animals.htm

Human-animal communication
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Human-animal communication is the communication observed between humans and other animals, from non-verbal cues and vocalizations through to, potentially, the use of a sophisticated language.

Introduction
Human-animal communication is easily observed in everyday life. The interactions between pets and their owners, for example, reflect a form of spoken, while not necessarily verbal dialogue. A dog being scolded does not need to understand every word of its admonishment, but is able to grasp the message by interpreting cues such as the owner's stance, tone of voice, and body language. This communication is two-way, as owners can learn to discern the subtle differences between barks and meows one hardly has to be a professional animal trainer to tell the difference between the bark of an angry dog defending its home and the happy bark of the same animal while playing. Communication (often nonverbal) is also significant in equestrian activities such as dressage.
[edit]Word

repetition in birds

Although the word repetition skills observed in some birds (most famously parrots) should not be mistaken for lingual communication, this tendency has nonetheless influenced fictional portrayals of animal communication, as sentient talking parrots and similar birds are common in children's fiction, such as the talking, loud-mouth parrot Iago of Disney's Aladdin. Bruce Thomas Boehner's book Parrot Culture: Our 2,500-Year-Long Fascination with the World's Most Talkative Bird explores this issue thoroughly.
[edit]The

next level: language

Achieving a deeper level of communication between animals and humans has long been a goal of science. Perhaps the most famous example of recent decades has been Koko, a gorilla who is supposedly able to communicate with humans using a system based on American Sign Language with a "vocabulary" of over 1000 words.
[edit]John

Lilly and Cetacean Communication

In the 1960s, John Lilly, M.D., prolific writer and explorer of consciousness via the isolation tank (his invention), and contemporary and associate of Timothy Leary, began experiments in the Virgin Islands aiming to establish meaningful communication between humans and the bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus). Lilly financed, mostly

personally, a human-dolphin cohabitat, a house on the ocean's shore that contained an area that was partially flooded and allowed a human and dolphin to live together in the same space, sharing meals, play, language lessons, and even sleep. Two experiments of this sort are explained in detail in Lilly's popular books (see John Lilly for bibliography). The first experiment was more of a test run to check psychological and other strains on the human and cetacean participants, determining the extent of the need for other human contact, dry clothing, time alone, and so on. Despite tensions after several weeks, the experimenter, Margaret C. Howe, agreed to a two-and-a-half month experiment, living isolated with 'Peter' dolphin. A basic outline of Peter dolphin's linguistic progress is as follows: early lessons involved mostly noise and interruptions from Peter during English lessons, and a food reward of fish was necessary for him to 'attend class.' After several weeks, a concerted effort by Peter to imitate the instructor's speech was evident, and human-like sounds were apparent, and recorded. More interesting was the dolphin's immediate grasp of basic semantics, such as the different aural indicators for 'ball' and 'doll' and other toys present in the aquarium. Peter was able to perform tasks such as retrieval on the (aurally) indicated object without fail. Later in the project the dolphin's ability to process linguistic syntax was made apparent, in that Peter could distinguish between the commands (e.g., only) "Bring the ball to the doll," and "Bring the doll to the ball." This ability not only demonstrates the bottlenose dolphin's grasp of basic grammar, but also implies the dolphins' own language must include some such syntactical rules. The correlation between length and 'syllables' (bursts of the dolphin's sound) with the instructor's speech also went from essentially zero at the beginning of the session to almost a perfect correlation by its completion. I.e., a sentence spoken by the instructor involving 35 syllables and lasting 8 seconds would be met with an 8-second burst of sound from Peter dolphin involving 35 easily-discernible 'syllables' or bursts of sound. Much later, experiments by Louis Herman, a former collaborator and student of Lilly's, demonstrated the crossmodal perceptual ability of dolphins. Dolphins typically perceive their environment through sound waves generated in the melon of their skulls, through a process known as echolocation (similar to that seen in bats, though the mechanism of production is different). The dolphin's eyesight however is also fairly good, even by human standards, and Herman's research found that any object, even of complex and arbitrary shape, identified either by sight or sound by the dolphin, could later be correctly identified by the dolphin with the alternate sense modality with almost 100 per cent accuracy, in what is classically known in psychology and behaviorism as a match-tosample test. The only errors noted were presumed to have been a misunderstanding of the task during the first few trials, and not an inability of the dolphin's perceptual

apparatus. This capacity is strong evidence for abstract and conceptual thought in the dolphin's brain, wherein an idea of the object is stored and understood not merely by its sensory properties; such abstraction may be argued to be of the same kind as complex language, mathematics, and art, and implies a potentially very great intelligence and conceptual understanding within the brains of tursiops and possibly many other cetaceans. Accordingly, Lilly's interest later shifted to whale song and the possibility of high intelligence in the brains of large whales, and Louis Herman's research at the now misnomered Dolphin Institute in Honolulu, Hawaii, focuses exclusively on the Humpback whale.
[edit]Animal

communication as entertainment

Poster for Toby the Sapient pig

Though animal communication has always been a topic of public comment and attention, for a period in history it surpassed this and became sensational popular entertainment. From the late 18th century through the mid 19th century, a succession of "learned pigs" and various other animals were displayed to the public in for-profit performances, boasting the ability to communicate with their owners (often in more than one language), write, solve math problems, and the like. One poster dated 1817 shows a group of "Java sparrows" who are advertised as knowing seven languages, including Chinese andRussian. One pig of the era was so famous that it performed for royalty, and an obituary upon its death claimed that it made more money than any actor or actress of the same time; a fact that, whether strictly true, was at least believable to

contemporary readers. By the late 1840s the fad had died down considerably. While the occasional appearance by a "learned" animal continued into the radio and television eras, it was by then generally understood that feats such as using cards to spell words, barking or tapping a hoof to solve equations, and the like were the products of training rather than actualcommunication. Though the tradition continues to this day on the "Stupid Pet Tricks" segment of Late Night with David Letterman, it seems likely that the era of trained pigs entertaining the crowned heads of Europe are over.
[edit]BowLingual

Main article: BowLingual One real-world example of a technological means of one-way human-animal communication is BowLingual, a Japanese device which claims to translate barks from dozens of different breeds of dogs, including mixed-breeds. Based largely on Dr. Matsumi Suzuki's Animal Emotion Analysis System developed at Japan Acoustic Laboratory, the device outputs one of 200 phrases (grouped into six different moods), supposedly reflecting "meaning" of the dog's bark. The device was apparently successful enough in Japan to be brought to the American market, and was even named one of 2002's best inventions by Time Magazine. However, reports of the BowLingual's accuracy have been mixed at best, with popular product-review website Epinionsgiving it a low 1.5 stars average.
[edit]Human-animal

communication in culture

The concept of human-animal communication has existed in culture for longer than recorded history, being an element of many myths and folk tales of numerous cultures, and continues in modern popular entertainment. This section lists some examples of this, divided by the method of communication (magical/supernatural, innate natural ability, technological, and unspecified/misc). Topics that are beyond the scope of this article and will not be listed here include intraspecies communication (e.g. Watership Down) and interspecies communication not involving humans (e.g. Redwall) or sentient animals who can think but not communicate with humans (e.g. Garfield; Buck of Married with Children; Blondi of Kingdom Hospital).
[edit]Magic

and supernatural

In many fantasy role playing games, Druid characters are able to speak with animals through the use of a spell. The Dungeons & Dragons version of this spell is called "Speak with Animals".

Eliza Thornberry of Nickelodeon's animated TV series The Wild Thornberrys can speak with animals after a spell is placed on her by an African tribal shaman.

In the Harry Potter series of books, Harry is a parselmouth (able to speak with snakes in their own language, parseltongue, which sounds like hissing and spitting to the ears of those without this (apparently hereditary) skill).

In The Immortals series of books, Veralidaine Sarrasri (Daine) has "wild magic" which enables her to communicate with animals. After being trained in the use of her wild magic, she learns to enter the minds of animals and shapeshift.

In the Obernewtyn Chronicles, some of the characters have the ability to mentally communicate with animals, an ability known as 'beastspeaking'. All animals have the same 'language', which comprises of mental pictures.

[edit]Innate

ability

Cypher, real name Douglas Ramsey, of Marvel Comics' The New Mutants, has a "mutant" ability to instantly translate any language he hears or sees, including animal languages.

Doctor Dolittle, subject of a series of children's books by Hugh Lofting as well as various film and stage adaptions, is a doctor whose ability to speak with animals makes him successful in dealing with animals but closes him off from most humans.

[edit]Technological

In Star Trek, the communicator badges worn by Starfleet crew members allow direct translation between humans and various sentient and semi-sentient aliens and creatures, though it is undetermined whether they work with "dumb" animals. It is presumed that this is not possible, as the relatively few domesticated animals seen on the show do not appear to converse with their owners (Data's cat, and Archer's beagle, for example). The council-chamber of the Xindi accommodates her Aquatic members in a water-tank.

In issue 285 of DC's Detective Comics, Martian Manhunter fights a brigade of "Martian mandrills" which were being manipulated by villains through the use of a communicator device stolen from the mandrills' rocket.

On the television cartoon Krypto the Superdog, Krypto has an "intergalactic communicator" device in his dog tag, which allows Kevin Whitney to communicate with him. The device is technology from Krypton, Superman's homeworld.

In the anime, Immortal Grand Prix (IGPX), Team Satomi's Midfielder, Amy, uses a machine to communicate with her cat, Luca, while racing with him in her mech. The same can be said for Team Edgeraid's Forward, Bjorn, and his dog, Sola.

[edit]Unspecified

and miscellaneous

In Herg's Tintin comics, Tintin's dog Snowy is sentient and able to "think". Although his thoughts are written in word bubbles rather than thought bubbles, it is generally assumed that the human characters cannot understand him. Once, in the early volume Tintin in America, Tintin was able to directly understand Snowy. Herg did not elaborate on why this was so; presumably it was used simply to advance the plot and not to bog down the story with a "talking dog" element.

The American television show Mr. Ed centers around a horse's ability to communicate with his owner, Wilbur. The plot of this television series was inspired by the movie character Francis the Talking Mule.

[edit]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human-animal_communication

How to Communicate with Animals by Dawn Baumann Brunke There are many ways we can tap into our natural abilities to communicate with animals. No matter which method you choose, however, it all boils down to one thing: relationship. Any form of meaningful communication involves relating to others (as well as ourselves) in an honest and authentic manner. One wonderful benefit to communicating with animals is that it requires us to feel our deeper relationship with all life and share ourselves from that connected state of awareness. As we open to the energy that flows through all life, we open ourselves to instant relationship. We know that we share a common awareness, for we feel it moving through us, connecting us with every other living being. Our ancestors embraced this connection and communicated fluently with the natural world. We also carry this ability within ourselves. Remembering it is simply a matter of shifting perspective, deepening, and tuning our consciousness. Different Ways to Sense the World Llama, dolphin, eagle, cat; human, salmon, whale and rat: underneath our fur or feathers, skin or scales, we are all composed of the same universal essence. Still, obviously, we are different. Among the 1.5 million species on earth, each of us has a unique vibration in form. Our perceptions of the world are unique as well, based on our sensing mechanisms (fingers, whiskers, trunks, antennae) and the ways we use those sensing mechanisms to know the world. Many animals have completely different sensing mechanisms than we do. Consider the bats ability to echolocate; the squids undulating propulsion system that powers it through water; the snails intimate sensing of the world through the length of its body. Part of the adventure in communicating with other beings is learning how to open our feelings, thoughts and senses in ways that can be mutually understood. So, How Does It Work? As we relax into a quieter, more tranquil state of being, our logical mind slows down. Our habitual ways of seeing the world shake loose and we become more receptive to perceiving in different ways. As rigid thoughts of how reality should be release their hold, we shift to a more intuitive state of being, one that is quite naturally capable of telepathy.

The word telepathy comes from tele, meaning distant or far away, andpathy, meaning feeling or perception. Telepathy is feeling from a distance, or perceiving from far away. It transcends the way we normally understand time and space. With telepathy, we can expand our awareness to connect on inner levels with any other being. With telepathy, we rediscover our fluency in the universal language. We can receive telepathic information from animals in many different ways. This may include visual images (pictures or movies within the inner theatre of the mind); inner feelings (an ache in the body that corresponds to an animals body, or sensing emotional feelings, such as fear or excitement); inner hearing (what an animal is hearing, or hearing an animals thoughts within the mind); or intuitive flashes (a sudden knowing). We must then translate these inner impressions in ways that we (and other humans) can understand. Many people discover that they have a preference for one mode over another. If you are very visual, you might get a lot of pictures, and you may want to practice sending images in return. If you like to talk and share ideas, you might sense an inner translation of words and sentences that resembles a dialogue. Over time and with practice, you might strengthen all modes and discover that you enjoy communicating in a variety of ways. The Basics: Four Easy Steps The basics of communicating with animals are not that different than communicating with people: you share an interesting thought or observation and await a response. This may excite you to share something else and listen eagerly to a reply. And so it goes, back and forth, an exchange of information, ideas, thoughts, laughter, sadness, joy and delight. What could be more natural? 1. Attuning Attuning is about moving deeper in relationship, intimately feeling the bonds connecting you and your animal friend. To begin, get comfortable in a quiet place. Close your eyes, breathe deep and allow the center of your being your heart, your mind, your soul to connect with your animal. Feel your animal connecting to you. Sense the flow between the two of you. Dont force the situation; rather, let it unfold. Your only goal is to quiet yourself and welcome the adventure. 2. Stating your Intention As you sense a deeper connection, address your animal directly, just as you would a good friend. You can use words (Id like to talk to you) or

images (picture yourself conversing) or feelings (feel your desire to communicate). Or, use all three (say it, picture it, sense it). In truth, it doesnt matter so much what you do or how you do it since this isnt about doing, but about being. Allow yourself to be in that place that genuinely desires to connect. It may help to first express your feelings Im nervous about this, but Id really like to talk to you. Or, you might ask a question: Is there anything I can do for you? Whats it like to be you (a dog, a cat, a horse)? Do you have a message for me? 3. Receiving Heres where you let go of everything and open up wide for the answer to come. Let go of all your thoughts about what could happen or might happen.Sshhh how can you hear when you are listening to doubts or planning what to ask next? Be open, relaxed and receptive. Welcome any and all feelings, sensations, images, words, smells, tastes or combinations thereof. Dont judge what you get or wonder if it is right. It is what it is! Allow the full message to come to you before you send a second message. 4. Closing, Giving Thanks As my wise, old dog Barney used to say, Good manners never go out of style. Offer warm feelings and thanks as you end your conversation. By thanking your animal, you acknowledge your appreciation and make first contact something you can build upon. Remember to thank yourself too! Thank your intuition and desire to connect with life in a deeper and more meaningful way. Even if you dont sense anything, thank your animal and yourself for a very good start. Really mean it, too, because although it may seem that what you are doing is little, what you are being is deep and expansive and very great indeed. Sharing the Mystery Every conversation, just like every relationship, is about sharing our own inimitable take on the mystery of life. There is no one way for everyone. There is no right way either. We each need to find what works for us. As you continue to tune into animals, remember that the universal language is one we already know and share with all life. Since it has been awhile that humans have used this language in a conscious way, we are a little out of practice. So be kind to yourself. And celebrate yourself, for in learning how to remember, you are helping the entire world to remember too!
http://www.alaskawellness.com/may-june04/communicate.htm