Nonverbal Skills
What isn't said is often as important as what is said. Generalization, deletion, and distortion are three nonverbal listening patterns. A typical generalization comes in the form of making a blanket statement based on a single incident. For example, after one upsetting incident at school, a student might say, "School is stupid." For whatever reason, the student may not like school at that particular moment.
Deletion means that information is left out, which leaves the listener with an inaccurate picture. Let's say that a student is doing well in a class until the latest exam. Upon receiving a lower-than-normal grade, he says, "I'm doing this class." The deletion, of course, doesn't take into account his past successes. In addition, he has deleted any productive observations, needs, and feelings.
Distortion is a change in the meaning of the information. For example, let's say a student is doing well in a class and the teacher makes a supportive comment. The student's distortion might be, "You're just saying that to be nice. I'll bet you say that to everyone." The student takes the message and distorts the meaning to have it fit his or her perception. If we listen carefully, we can find that students often have a strong bias in one direction or another. For example, if a student is continually saying what an awful job another teacher is doing, you may suspect some ulterior motives.