Just to warn you - I'm weird.
I came across the Communication Matrix while looking for stuff related to one of my psychology classes. It's an online tool for assessing the level of communication skills that a child or adult with a disability shows.
But instead of using it for that, I'm using it to assess my cats.
According to this tool, Lilly (my 3 month old) is showing some skills at the level of Intentional Behavior (choosing certain actions willfully but not intending to communicate), some at Unconventional Communication (intending to communicate, but not following social conventions) and a couple possible examples of Conventional Communication (using standard gestures or social conventions, such as greeting someone when they enter a room).
Katrina (my 15 year old) shows a lot of Unconventional Communication, and also a few examples of Conventional Communication (apparently alternating gaze between a person and the subject of communication counts as a standard gesture).
Lilly mostly tends to just try something, and I watch her behavior and guess at what she wants. However, occasionally she'll look to me for help, and she runs up and greets me enthusiastically when I let her out of my brother's room. (She's spending nights there to keep her from fighting with Katrina.) She's definitely starting to figure out that she can affect my behavior by how she acts, but she's not very adept at it yet.
Katrina, on the other hand, seems to me to be a very deliberate and sophisticated communicator, by cat standards. She's very clear about what she wants. If she's hungry, she'll go find me in a completely different room in order to lead me over to her food bowl and alternate looking at the food bowl and looking at me. She frequently asks for a cuddle, and then deliberately waits until I make room for her and invite her up. She tells me very clearly when I'm trying to stop cuddling and she's not finished - she'll give me a significant look, cling, grumble, etc. She looks up and greets me when I wander into the laundry room where she likes to sleep. And she looks utterly disgusted with me if I misinterpret her communication.
It's fascinating. A lot of people seem to think communication = speech, but there's so much a cat can say, even though they can't talk.
I came across the Communication Matrix while looking for stuff related to one of my psychology classes. It's an online tool for assessing the level of communication skills that a child or adult with a disability shows.
But instead of using it for that, I'm using it to assess my cats.
According to this tool, Lilly (my 3 month old) is showing some skills at the level of Intentional Behavior (choosing certain actions willfully but not intending to communicate), some at Unconventional Communication (intending to communicate, but not following social conventions) and a couple possible examples of Conventional Communication (using standard gestures or social conventions, such as greeting someone when they enter a room).
Katrina (my 15 year old) shows a lot of Unconventional Communication, and also a few examples of Conventional Communication (apparently alternating gaze between a person and the subject of communication counts as a standard gesture).
Lilly mostly tends to just try something, and I watch her behavior and guess at what she wants. However, occasionally she'll look to me for help, and she runs up and greets me enthusiastically when I let her out of my brother's room. (She's spending nights there to keep her from fighting with Katrina.) She's definitely starting to figure out that she can affect my behavior by how she acts, but she's not very adept at it yet.
Katrina, on the other hand, seems to me to be a very deliberate and sophisticated communicator, by cat standards. She's very clear about what she wants. If she's hungry, she'll go find me in a completely different room in order to lead me over to her food bowl and alternate looking at the food bowl and looking at me. She frequently asks for a cuddle, and then deliberately waits until I make room for her and invite her up. She tells me very clearly when I'm trying to stop cuddling and she's not finished - she'll give me a significant look, cling, grumble, etc. She looks up and greets me when I wander into the laundry room where she likes to sleep. And she looks utterly disgusted with me if I misinterpret her communication.
It's fascinating. A lot of people seem to think communication = speech, but there's so much a cat can say, even though they can't talk.
