Nonverbal Dictionary | Page 3

fingertips (see
MIME CUE)--or reward a child's successful threading with a gentle pat. There is\

no better organ than a hand for gauging unspoken thoughts, attitudes, an\
d moods.
Embryology. Hands are visible as fleshy paddles on limb buds of the human fetus until the 6th week of
life, when digital rays form separate fingers through a process of progr\
ammed cell death. Soon after,
hands and arms make coordinated paddling movements in mother's amniotic fluid. Placed in water
shortly after birth, babies can swim, as
paleocircuits of the aquatic brain & spinal cord prompt
newborns to kick with their feet and paddle with their hands.
Infancy. Babies are born with the primate ability to grasp objects tightly in a climbing-related
power
grip. Later, they instinctively reach for items placed in front of them. Between 1-1/2 and 3 months,
reflexive grasping is replaced by an ability to hold-on by choice. Voluntary reaching appears during the
4th and 5th months of age, and coordinated sequences of reaching, grasping, and handling objects are
seen by 3-to-6 months, as fingertips and palms explore the textures, sha\
pes, warmth, wetness, and
dryness of
Nonverbal World (Chase and Rubin 1979).
Early signs. By 5 months, as a prelude to more expressive mime cues, babies posture with arms and
hands as if anticipating the size and hardness (or softness) of object\
s in their reach space (Chase and
Rubin 1979). Between 6 and 9 months, infants learn to grasp food items \
between the thumbs and outer
sides of their index fingers, in an apelike precursor of the
precision grip. At this time, babies also pull,
pound, rub, shake, push, twist, and creatively manipulate objects to determine their "look and feel"
(Chase and Rubin 1979).
Later signs. Eventually, a baby's hands experiment not only with objects themselves\
but with component
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hands
parts, as if curious to learn more about relationships and about how things f\
it together (Chase and Rubin
1979). At one year, infants grasp objects between the tactile pads of thumb and index fingers, in a
mature, distinctively human precision grip.
Pointing with an extended index finger also begins at 12
months, as babies use the cue to refer to novel sights and sounds--and speak their first
words.
Neuro-notes I. Our brain devotes an unusually large part of its surface area to hands\
and fingers (see
HOMUNCULUS). In the mind's eye, as a result a. of the generous space they occupy on the sensory and
motor strips of our neocortex, and b. of the older paleocircuits linking them to emotional and grooming
centers of the
mammalian brain, almost anything a hand does holds potential as a sign. Today, our
hands are fiber-linked to an array of sensory, motor, and association ar\
eas of the forebrain, midbrain, and
cerebellum, which lay the groundwork for
nonverbal learning, manual sign language, computer
keyboard fluency, and the ability to make tools of stone, silicon, and steel.
Neuro-notes II. We respond to hands and their gestures with an extreme alertness becau\
se specialized
nerve cells in the lower temporal lobe respond exclusively to hand positions and shapes (see, e.g., Kandel
et al. 1991:458-59).
See also
FEET, PALM-DOWN, PALM-UP, SELF-TOUCH.
Copyright © 1998 - 2002 (David B. Givens/Center for Nonverbal Studies)
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gesture
GESTURE
Certainly, there was some deep meaning in it, most worthy of interpretat\
ion, and which, as it were, streamed forth from
the mystic symbol, subtly communicating itself to my sensibilities, but \
evading the analysis of my mind. --Nathaniel
Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter (1850)
Nonverbal sign. 1. A body movement, posture, or material artifact which encodes or influen\
ces a
concept, motivation, or mood (thus, a gesture is neither matter nor ene\
rgy, but
information). 2. In its
most generic sense, a gesture is a
sign, signal, or cue used to communicate in tandem with, or apart from,
words. 3. Gestures include facial expressions (e.g., EYEBROW-RAISE, SMILE), clothing cues (e.g.,
BUSINESS SUIT, NECKWEAR), body movements (e.g., PALM-DOWN, SHOULDER-SHRUG),
and
postures (e.g., ANGULAR DISTANCE). Many consumer products (e.g., BIG MAC®,
VEHICULAR GRILLE, VEHICULAR STRIPE) contain messaging features designed to
communicate as signs, and may be decoded as gestures as well. 4. Those wordless forms of
communication omitted from a written transcript. (E.g., while the printed transcripts of the Nixon Tapes
reported the words spoken by the former president and his White House st\
aff, they captured few of the
gestures exchanged in the Oval Office during the Nixon years.)
Anthropology. ". . . we respond to gestures with an extreme alertness and, one might\
almost say, in
accordance with an elaborate and secret code that is written nowhere, kn\
own by none, and understood by
all" (Sapir 1927:556; see below, Hand gestures).
Baby gestures. 1. "This article (Acredolo and Goodwyn 1985) presents the story of our f\
irst 'Baby
Signer,' Linda’s daughter Kate who began to spontaneously create symb\
olic gestures when she was about
12 months old. These