Nonverbal communication is the earliest, most accessible way infants share information with others before fluent speech. It supports social connection, helps caregivers interpret needs, and provides a foundation for later vocabulary and conversational skills.

What Nonverbal Communication Is (and Why It Matters)

Nonverbal communication includes signals that convey meaning without words, such as gestures, eye gaze, facial expressions, posture, and vocal cues (e.g., crying, laughter).

These cues let infants influence others (getting comfort, requesting objects) and participate in shared interactions that later become verbal “turn-taking.”

Core Nonverbal Signals in Early Development

Gestures (especially pointing)

Gestures are deliberate movements used to communicate. In early development, pointing is especially important because it directs another person’s attention and often predicts later language growth.

Common gesture functions include:

• Requesting (“give me that”) by reaching, open-hand gestures, or pointing

• Sharing interest (“look at that”) by pointing while looking back to a caregiver

• Directing action (leading an adult by the hand; pushing away unwanted items)

Eye gaze and joint engagement

Infants use eye gaze to monitor caregivers, signal interest, and coordinate attention between a person and an object.

Diagram contrasting two core joint-attention behaviors in infancy: responding to another person’s gaze/gesture and initiating joint attention by pointing and alternating gaze between the partner and the object. It visually captures the triadic structure (infant–caregiver–object) that makes joint attention such a powerful context for social learning and early word mapping. Source

Joint attention supports learning because caregivers tend to label or respond to what the child is focused on, strengthening word–referent links.

Facial expressions and emotional signalling

Facial expressions communicate basic affect (interest, distress, surprise). Caregivers respond quickly to these cues, reinforcing the infant’s sense that communication changes the social environment.

Vocal cues that are not yet words

Before speech, infants rely on prosody (rhythm, pitch, intensity) in cries, squeals, and laughter to convey urgency or pleasure.

Example prosody visualization showing how pitch (fundamental frequency) and intensity (loudness) can be plotted over time alongside a spectrogram. This makes “prosody” observable as continuous acoustic patterns—useful for understanding how pre-verbal vocalizations can carry communicative information even before words. Source

These sounds often work together with gestures (e.g., pointing plus a vocalization) to clarify meaning.

How Nonverbal Communication Supports Language Development

Nonverbal behaviours are not separate from language; they scaffold it.

• Establishing reference: Pointing and gaze help identify “what we are talking about,” reducing ambiguity.

• Creating conversational structure: Back-and-forth exchanges (gesture → caregiver response → infant reaction) resemble later turn-taking.

• Eliciting rich input: When infants indicate interest, caregivers typically provide more child-directed speech, including labels and simple explanations.

• Building pragmatic skills: Infants learn that communication has goals (requesting, sharing, protesting) and that listeners have attention that can be guided.

Research and Measurement in Nonverbal Communication

Researchers commonly assess nonverbal communication by observing:

• Frequency and type of gestures (especially pointing)

• Episodes of joint attention and how long they last

• Caregiver responsiveness (timing and appropriateness of responses)

• Coordination across channels (gesture + gaze + vocalization)

Interpretation should consider that nonverbal behaviour varies with context (fatigue, novelty, caregiver familiarity) and that gesture meaning depends heavily on the surrounding interaction.

Individual and Cultural Variation (Within a Shared Function)

The specific form of gestures can differ across families and cultures, but the overall function—sharing meaning and managing attention—is widespread. Some environments emphasize pointing and object-labeling, while others rely more on proximity, touch, or shared routines; in either case, infants learn how their community “does communication” long before they speak fluently.