Assertiveness in communication beginning in early childhood, with emphasis on the practice of communicative gestures

Abstract

Relating the practice of communicative gestures to assertiveness in communication from early childhood on is a necessity in the educational process, supporting the language development of children 4 to 5 years of age. This epistemological foundation guides the present study in order to achieve results that, first, lead to an awareness of wholeness in the development of the individual and, second, contribute to the efforts of various studies that emphasize the importance of assertiveness in communication, which naturally emerges as the axis upon which social interactions revolve. The purpose of this basic study is to contribute to and build upon existing knowledge using a non-experimental cross-sectional research design; from a quantitative standpoint, it reaches correlational descriptive levels with information collected with a frequency Likert scale on the practice of communicative gestures and assertiveness. The instrument used achieves a reliability level of 0.9 according to Cronbach's Alpha. The results make it possible to visualize theoretical-practical connections between communicative gestures and assertiveness in communication beginning in early childhood. As an innovative contribution, this study strengthens the idea of executing simultaneous and non-isolated processes between different forms of communication from a verbal and non-verbal typological perspective; this reaffirms the messages issued with high levels of assertiveness, a necessary practice to be stimulated from childhood.