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Abstract

Procedures and scales were developed for time-sampling 4 aspects of children's non-verbal communicational activity: distance, orientation, position, and visual regard These scales, plus an index of verbalization, were applied to TV-taped recordings of 6 girls and 8 boys, all 4 or 5 yr. old, chosen at random from same-sex, same-age, triads engaged in free play. Scale reliabilities were marginal to excellent. Contrary to prediction, girls maintained greater distance than did boys. Inter-scale correlations were suggestive of other sex differences and provided validation of the general procedures. Regression analyses for each sex indicated that distance behavior was significantly related to a composite of the other communicational behaviors assessed.

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Spatially Dominated Nonverbal Communication of Children: A Methodological Study

Abstract

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