This study will analyze human body language, or nonverbal communications, in terms of the messages sent by such language, and the reasons for and consequences of misunderstanding, or not responding knowledgeably to, such messages. The essence of the study will be the argument that an individual who seeks to live and work and relate to other human beings, in business and in personal affairs, and in as healthy and knowledgeable a fashion as possible, will become educated in detecting and reading body language.
Butterworth makes clear the significance of the topic, noting both the presence of body language in infants and the relationship between early nonverbal communication and the learning of language itself. The sub-title of his article in Natural History is "finger pointing by babies is correlated with the rate of language acquisition." He goes on to argue that finger pointing, which is apparently used in the animal world only by humans, "is closely linked with speech acquisition. The age when babies first point (around the 11-month point, on average) is a good indicator of their progress in language comprehension" (Butterworth, 1997, p. 14).
A fair implication is that successful nonverbal communication will affect how, when, and how well the infant acquires verbal skills. If the infant's finger pointing is ignored, the infant may lose the incentive to love to the next stage of the acquisition of communication skills. In all matters related to communication, healthy interactions in which gestures are recognized and receive responses will lead to further efforts at communication and additional acquisition of skills. As Butterworth writes, the simply gesture of a finger-pointing child is one of the first steps in a long journey of education and communication:
In the beginning was the Word . . . and an outstretched index finger. Tugging on her mother's jacket, a small child, too young to talk, points her index finger at a ...