0We all have read in history books that human beings, before the introduction of words, used to express feelings with the help of gestures and postures. They used their bodies to communicate. They gritted their teeth to show anger. Grimmed to display their happiness and touched one another to exhibit affection. You have also read previously that communication can be both written and spoken. The history of language reveals that the written form of communication developed much later than the spoken form. Language became more refined with the passage of time when the notion of correctness ie, grammar came into being.
What is non-verbal communication?
Communication without the use of words or speech is called non-verbal communication.
Non-verbal communication doesn’t follow any fixed structure. The response to a piece of good news can be expressed by giving a small smile, whereas sometimes evoking a whole-hearted laughter.
As in written communication, punctuation marks convey the message left out by words, in non-verbal communication, body movements, gestures, postures, environment, time , space and tone of voice convey more than words do.
Studies suggest that there are 7,00,000 forms of non-verbal communication. As it is difficult to interpret all of them, let us group them in the following 3 categories:
