User:Elehigh4

Definition
Nonverbal communication is a nonlinguistic way of sharing meaning with others. There are several types of nonverbal communication, one of which is gestural communication, or kinesics. There are three main categories of gestural communication: manipulators, illustrators, and emblems.

Types of Gestural Communication
Manipulators are unconscious gestures done by one part of the body, usually the hands, such as twirling the hair (as seen in Figure 1), rubbing the arm, or tapping the foot. This type of gesture is ambiguous and has no specific meaning, which causes others to perceive them in different ways.

Illustrators are gestures that accompany verbal communication and function to accentuate, complement, and repeat the oral message. This reinforces that was said and enhances understanding of the message. Figure 2 represents illustration, because the gesture representing “this big” repeats and accentuates the verbal explanation of how big an object is.

Emblems are gestures that are used in place of verbal communication. These are sometimes ambiguous, especially across cultures. This is because certain emblems can have different meanings in different cultures. For example, the thumbs up sign means “way to go” in the United States, but it means “up yours” in Australia. Figure 3 diagrams the emblem of the hand wave, which means “hello”.