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How is talking different from communication? When speaking while alone, you are talking. When someone hears and understands what you are saying, that is communication, but it is not the only form of communication. We communicate in many ways, by not speaking, by listening, by touching and not touching, we communicate our intentions and understanding or lack of understanding.

Touch is a form of communication. Touching has almost become taboo in America, recently. If students hug on the school ground, they are suspended. If a teacher hugs a student, they are reprimanded and might be dismissed. If a father gives his daughter a big squeeze, he is suspected of sexual abuse. If a child recieves litle or no touch, they either develop a dislike of touching or seek inappropriate touches to fill their need. Those traits were communicated to them when they were young and they will communicate that to their children.

Touch is one of the most important primal needs, and can say many things, good and/or bad. How touch is intended is half of communication. How it is received is the other half. As with speech, touch requires one person, or many, to understand what is being communicated. Some people speak well, and what they say is understood and appreciated. Some people touch well, and are understood and the touch is appreciated. Others may touch in a similar way and it might be totally misunderstood.

Smell is very primal and is an often overlooked means of communication. Pheromones help animals communicate across miles of separation, but is essentially ignored by our conscious brain, mostly from denial and cultural interference. We overcome our primal instincts and mask them with deodorants, colognes, and perfumes. We do communicate something, though, but not so much positive, but negative communication. "Here, honey; I got you some really nice perfume for Valentine's Day," says, "You stink, try this," if we listened. We don't listen, consciously, to most of the input we receive in a typical day. Maybe that is for the best, with what we are exposed to in a typical day: commercials, the boss's rants, gossip, bad music, traffic noise, elevator body odor, "accidental" touches on the subway, etc.

Body language is a large part of communication. We don't always interpret it well, but we are affected by it, even if we don't realize it on a conscious level. If the boss says, "Yeah, yeah, whatever," as they turn away and pick up the phone, waving you out of the office, do you believe

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