Should we be using hand gestures to communicate, are hand gestures distracting, and why are hand gestures important for communication? This article explains all, focusing on the benefits of hand gestures for the audience and the user. For example, as well as being more engaging for the audience, using hand gestures aid the user's memory recall and helps the user to speak more fluently.

Despite differences in talk topic and content, I’ve found little difference in the communication skills and behaviour between adults and children when delivering a presentation. Common mistakes made by adults are typically the same as those made by children. In this article, I’ll explain three common mistakes people make when delivering a talk or presentation.

Over many thousands of years, our ancestors have relied on nonverbal communication cues like body language, expression and tone of voice as a survival mechanism, to gauge whether an outsider was friend or foe. It was a matter of life or death. What is their intention towards me? Are they carrying a weapon? Are they capable of harming me? Today, we face less risk, yet we still make snap judgements, assessing everyone we meet. How are you perceived by others and what can you do to create feelings of trust?

In this post you can read an overview of my analysis of Scott Morrison and Bill Shorten’s body language during the Australian Federal Election debate. And, read a write-up of my body language analysis in The West Australian newspaper.

Last week I was asked to analyse Donald Trump's body language during his response to the Orlando massacre. I've decided to share my findings in this blog post. There are a few signals that are definitely worth a mention- 'duper's delight', tongue jut, increased blink rate and one sided shoulder shrug. These are very interesting cues and can, if combined with other cues, raise a red flag in deception detection. I'll explain these later.