Do you first develop the abillity to read body language, or do you first learn how to speak?

Babies are definitely much more aware of body language at a young age. They’ll cry even before learning words if you express that they should cry. Example: they hit themselves with a shovel you run over, worried, and ask if they’re okay, they think “oh I was supposed to be in pain” and will cry. If you’re chill in that situation the kid might not even be aware they could reasonably cry in that situation

Oh yeah, that has happened with my son 😂. Like he starts crying when you go over to check if he's OK and hug him. The same thing happens and I don't do that, he just carries on doing whatever he wanted to do 😂... or forgets what it was he wanted to do (the hit interrupts his thought process 😂) and just does something else 😂.

I work in early years. Yes babies have a great understanding of body language and facial expression long before they can talk to communicate.

Young children are actually far more intelligent than most people give them credit for. Just because they can’t communicate it the same language as us yet doesn’t mean they don’t know what they’re doing.

If they didn’t understand body language, how would they bond with people? And people bond back with them? Not to be insulting, but it’s like with pets. We can build bonds with them because we learnt to understand each others body language even though we don’t speak the same language

it’s like with pets. We can build bonds with them because we learnt to understand each others body language even though we don’t speak the same language

Nice example :-)

I have read that cats use their meowing ONLY when they communicate with humans. Among other cats / animals, they use different languages.
- And dogs have that look they use on humans that says help me. Also I have seen dogs present their rear for communication to other dogs but not to humans.
Yes babies have a great understanding of body language and facial expression long before they can talk to communicate.

I knew it!

My wife is a social worker and she said the opposite and we had like a big quarel over it. I was 99% sure I was right, but I since she's a social worker, she's more the authority on this matter than I am (I'm an engineer) and I thought I'd double check, just to be sure.

Now I'm gonna rub this in her face 😁.
It's amazing how people still deny evolution. The wild relatives of Guinea Pigs are silent only making noise when one is totally isolated from the group and needs to find it. The domesticated ones are loud making a variety of different noises for different needs and emotions.

The species evolved towards us because we are evolved to respond to "help me" noises from small cute furry things. Why? Because babies that were not responding and communicating ended up dead.

Absolutely body language first. It is well established that children can learn and use sign language to communicate long before they can speak. If that doesn't count as "body language" then I don't know what does 😉

Depends how autistic you are

I mean, I’ve known how to speak for a long time now, but I still haven’t developed the ability to read body language…

You must have developed a way to read at least facial expressions. I should have added that in the title, since that is probably the first thing babies learn, but I was in a hurry.

Depends what you mean by body language. I think that most can recognise basic facial expressions like happiness and fear before they can talk, and understand things like pointing and reaching for things to express interest etc.

Yes, that is what I meant actually. Just body language in general, body language and facial expressions.

I have a niece that is not yet 2 and I can tell you she reads body language and practices it along with speaking. Her body language is a lot better then her spoken language by far.

It is, it really is. My son acted the same way when he was 2 (he's 4 now)... so, I really have no idea why my wife said the opposite was true.

I just wanted to confirm what I already knew without giving a biased question (leading to one answer or another).

Kids who are blind from birth generally still learn to speak, so (visual) body language recognition can't be 100% prerequisite.

We're more or less born being able to "read" facial expressions and tone of voice. IDK about body language.

Facial expressions, yes, that is what I was aiming at mostly (I was in a hurry, I missed it in the title).

I'm autistic so for me it was speech first. Didn't really learn to read body language until my teenage years and it was something I had to actively force myself to learn. Still can't really do it all that well though to be honest.

More like I learned body language is too subjective, then I learned how to speak at four. My family members had all different forms of body language for the same things, I couldn't not end up muting it out.