ABSTRACT
In Affolter and Bischofberger’s nonverbal interaction framework, congruity between verbal and nonverbal skills is not expected. As reported in this book, the authors also were misguided initially by a developmental model, which predicted a hierarchically dependent relationship among levels that emerge at different times. Although their research did support the assumption of interrelated levels, it did not support the assumption of a hierarchical dependent relationship among skills. In their longitudinal research on children with language disorders, some nonverbal skills (e.g., direct imitation of body gestures), which emerge before language in typically developing children, did not do so until after language onset in some children with language disorders. Some nonverbal skills (e.g., perspective drawing), which emerge late in typically developing children, were observed earlier than nonperspective drawing in some languagedisordered children. Affolter and Bischofberger reasoned that nonverbal and verbal levels are not directly related to each other. They are indirectly related. This indirect relationship stems from the relationship of verbal and nonverbal skills to a third more basic source of development, namely, the nonverbal interactions of daily problem-solving events. Therefore, nonverbal skills are not expected to include prerequisite skills for verbal development or language acquisition. The emergence of some nonverbal skills before verbal ones or verbal before nonverbal ones has to do with the kind of perceptual organization that is required to pick up the information about one set of skills as opposed to another.
