Non-Verbal Dialects

Post Reply New Topic

I was wondering why I can communicate with members of my family, but was having difficulty keeping up socially with some other people.

The more I thought about it, the more I began to realise that some of my family’s communication is mostly verbal and eye contact is relatively low. So most of the message is carried in the words we say and our tones of voice, not so much in subtle facial expressions.

I do express strong emotions and do have facial expressions, but other people seem to express more subtle “shades” of emotions and regulate them differently. So hence, the body language I express is probably slightly different to extremely sociable people.


So communication for me on average is about 70% verbal and 30% non-verbal.

Contrast that with about 10% verbal and 90% non-verbal on average for so called “normal” people.
(Mehrabian (1971) for expressing “Likes and Dislikes”).


Big ratio difference.
I believe that it’s a difference in the same way that an accent or a dialect is a difference.

Not inherently bad or good: it’s just is a communication style difference.

Perhaps that’s one of the reasons why I’d had so many misunderstandings with some other people: our non-verbal communication styles were different.

I’ve had complaints that people can’t “read” me and vice versa.
I also tend to wave my arms about more and “make visual symbols” with them.

I also tend to use a lot of strong metaphors and imagery in my speech to illustrate points. I wonder if this is to compensate for something?

I’ve also noticed that I’ve been able to understand and feel more comfortable with people who’s non-verbal communication style is similar to my own.

For instance, in some science and tech settings, some of the communication by some people can be over 95% verbal and 5% non-verbal. These people talked eloquently about non-emotive subjects such as data analysis and issuing instructions. Some of them tend to wave their arms about more too.


So I wondered, could there in fact be such things as “non-verbal dialects”?


Could these vary from micro-culture to culture/situation to situation?

Are some “non-verbal dialects” hardwired in the brain?

Are some “non-verbal dialects” learned?

Do some “non-verbal dialects” serve particular purposes e.g. to comfort a friend or to inform people about data?



I Googled “Non Verbal Dialects” and this article came up:

http://ballastexistenz.autistics.org/?p=414

It looks like someone’s beaten me to it.
Apologies if this article has already been referenced.

Now I’m wondering about how human brain wiring can influence culture and style of communication. I’ve been reading up on body language.

Fascinating stuff.

It’d be interesting to read people’s views on this.

There's a certain degree of facial expressions and body languages that appear to be genetic. People that are SI/blind from birth were found to display similar facial expressions as their relatives despite having never seen their expressions and body language.

Individuals with ASD also very often have family members with BAP that whilst it can be very subtle can influence them in their social ability still. That could play into it too.


Maybe there's some subgroup that's currently diagnosed as AS and all other the spectrum actually does have non-verbal communication and thus are a different kind of autistic than those on the spectrum just have a gross lack of non-verbal communication.

There are autistic people including those with LFA that say they have some sort of non-verbal understanding with some people/some other autistic people going on.

But there are also those autistic people that don't have any of that because they just lack non-verbal expression.

See article:

http://www.physorg.com/news82125637.html


It mentions that "Facial Expression Phenotypes" are inherited.

Interesting how these behavioural expressions could act as reproductive isolation mechanisms.

Kind of interesting how the article hinted that discovering the genes responsible for facial expression might one day be used to develop "repair mechanisms" that could be used to treat people lacking facial expressions.

I'm not sure whether I would really want to be cured for "lacking" facial expressions (if that was ever possible). If I had different facial expressions I wouldn't be me.

Could there one day be such a thing as "emotional expression or personality plastic surgery"?

Would famous people seek personality enhancing treatment to further their careers?

What about people with relationship issues?

The mind boggles...