ABSTRACT
Verbal behavior is not an autonomous medium for the children during the acquisition of language skills, but is rather closely intertwined with nonverbal behaviors and feelings. There are at least two implications of the developmental antecedents of adult communication. First, the study of children’s verbal behavior can be enhanced considerably by examining their nonverbal behavior. Second, the study of children’s affect-laden communications can contribute to a better understanding of the affective communications of adults. In this respect, implicit affect communications of adults can be regarded as modified and partly censored versions of more spontaneous expressions by children. The relation between communicator and referent is characterized by the extent to which a child’s actions, affect, and needs are fused with, and are indistinguishable from, the referent. A by-product of high immediacy and similarity among the four components in child communication is that their communication behaviors in general, and language behaviors in particular, are contextualized.
