Development of Nonverbal Request Skills in Persian Typically Developing 9-to-30-Month Children

Introduction and goals: Nonverbal means are acquired in the first year of life together with intentional communication functions. Gradually, as linguistic skills develop, children use verbal means alone or along with gestures. The goal of the present study was examining the development of nonverbal request skills in Persian typically developing 9-to-30-month children.
In the present cross-sectional study, 61 children (40 girls and 21 boys) were examined using Early Social Communication Scales (ESCS) at the age of 9, 12, 15, 18, 24, and 30 months. The mean scores and standard deviation, Kolmogorov–Smirnov test, and Kruskal-Wallis test were used for data analysis.
Data analysis showed that there was a significant difference between mean ranks of groups (p=0.03). The mean scores of children were 12.16, 18.76, 24, 20.76, 24, and 24.04, according to age groups.
As intentional communication begins at 9 month, children used nonverbal means for requesting. In the second year, because of developing of language, verbal means were used in substitute or concomitant with nonverbal means. Differences were observed in the use of a variety of nonverbal means due to age and individual differences between children.