Before We Learn To Speak
How body language is an innate form of communication.
If animals can read body language so easily and readily - why can't we recognize it when we see it? The truth is - we can and do - just not consciously. In fact, scientists believe that humans do use body language consciously, until we learn to speak. Numerous studies that filmed interactions between pre-verbal children - both with each other and with adults - show that the toddlers and infants clearly understand each other without words. In The Secret Language of Your Child, Dr. David Lewis reported what he found when he filmed and studied the interactions between children in a toddler playgroup. The children ranged in age from 12 months to 2 years. None were verbal yet. The cameras caught what the mothers missed - the conversations going on right under their noses.