Non-Verbal Communication in Three to Five-Year Old Children in Multilingual Settings

Abstract

Conservation, phenology and ethnobotany of some lowland species of the genus sansevierla thunb: case of Taita Taveta and Malindi districts, Kenya This study centres on non-verbal communication in three to five year old children in urban settings where the children acquire more than two languages. The main objectives of the study include: To identify the non-verbal cues that children use. To determine or establish the frequency of use of the non-verbal behaviour. To find out if 'three to five year old children recognize and interpret non-verbal cues. To determine the relationship between the age of the children and non-verbal cues. Two theories and a model are used in conducting this research. Kinesics theory, is a theory that was proposed by Birdwhistell (1970) and he believed that body motion communication is systematic, asocially learned and communicative in behaviour unless proven otherwise. The second theory used is the theory of semiotics which talks about the study of signs. It was proposed by Pierce et al (1914). Finally, there was transactional model of communication which sees communication as a simultaneous process. The main proponent was Barnlunds (1970). The study was carried out in Embakasi division in Nairobi East district in Nairobi. The• informants will be nine and they were purposively sampled in a multilingual setting. The data was collected using a video-recorder as the main instrument together with observation and photographs. Data was collected and analysed quantitatively and qualitatively. The researcher used descriptions and spearman's correlation co-efficient to analyse the data.