Age-Related Changes in Hand and Arm Movements as Nonverbal Communication: Some Conceptualizations and an Empirical Exploration

2 sets of assumptions about nonverbal communications and their implications for changes in hand and arm gestures over age are considered. The traditional set seems to view all communicative hand and arm movements as primitive precursors to later verbalizations and to imply a decrease in these gestures as age and verbal fluency increase. The second view, based on a model of communication described by Wiener, Devoe, Rubinow, and Geller (1972) and Wiener and Mehrabian (1968), predicts differences in kinds of nonverbal communication behaviors over age rather than a decrease. Some data are generated which show that the use of communicative hand and arm movements by children (4-18 years) changes as predicted by the latter view. The relevance of these data and other implications for the investigation of nonverbal communication patterns over age are also discussed.