Nonverbal Communication in Media and Education

**63**

**Chapter 4**

**Abstract**

priate conversation.

**1. Introduction**

teachers, cross-cultural effects

and Culture

The Body Speaks Society, School

*Manuela Valentini, Maria Chiara Mancini and Ario Federici*

How can we help all children, since birth, become effective communicators and interpreters? Why should nonverbal behaviour be of interest? The aim of this research is to reflect on the importance of every element of the analogical language, related to a target audience of preschool and school children aged between 0 and 8 years that is always little studied. The ability to communicate is an essential skill that has roots in early childhood; preschool children especially prefer the body as means of communication, from birth. Children learn to know the analogical language by observing the one of the parents and by imitating him. It is worth to underline the essential role of school that, beyond the family context, is the privileged environment for the development and learning of communication, both verbal and non-verbal. However, non-verbal languages are determined by cultures, that is, they are not equal for all regardless of cultures, but they change depending on cultures themselves; understand cultural foundations of the communication, in today's multicultural and pluralistic world, is an essential help to handle an appro-

**Keywords:** non-verbal communication, early development, children, parents,

Communication is a basic need for all living beings since their birth. It is the foundation of society itself, as it implies an interaction between interlocutors and therefore an exchange, that can be social, interpersonal, verbal, nonverbal, analogical, digital and so on. During the evolution process, the majority of the animal species developed the ability of conveying and receiving messages that could be understood by every member of the same species. These messages may be about: reporting of food or warning of danger, sexual desire, prohibition linked to the social hierarchy, the will to play (which may be found in cubs) and so on. Even newborns are able to communicate in a comprehensible way and the adults who

take care of them are able to understand and reply to their messages.

All these forms of communication belong to the nonverbal type and are extremely varied and complex. In each species, the nervous system has evolved so that it could decode and produce nonverbal and at times very complex messages. The human brain is "naturally" suitable to communicate in a nonverbal way within our species. Moreover, the human form of nonverbal communication, which until 4–5 million years ago was identical to the one of chimpanzees, has evolved even

**Chapter 4**
