When we think of communication, the first things that will probably come to our mind are all those conversations that we have in our day to day life, whether it is with our friends, parents, work colleagues and even strangers. Nevertheless, we should also remember the fact that not all of our communication is done by using words: in fact, most of it is done through physical actions and gestures, even though we may not notice it at first. Speaking of body language, there are many reasons why it needs to be used so frequently. While it does have its limitations and shortcomings, we also cannot ignore the inherent advantages that is possesses over verbal communication. These alone are good enough to prevent it from being overwhelmed by the latter when it comes to most everyday situations.

It is Quicker – By using our actions, it is possible to communicate something much faster than we would be able by using words. Examples for such actions are gestures like handshakes at meetings, which are meant to instil confidence and trust whenever welcoming a person or agreeing to common terms, or when we use our fingers and hands to direct somebody to a place or location.

It Complements Our Words – Most of the times, our actions are used to complement our words to convey our thoughts in a much better way to other people. This way of communication is still the best way to ensure people will understand our messages and pieces of advice effectively.

Useful for Disabled People – Non-verbal communication is sometimes essential for disabled people, due to various reasons making it difficult or even downright impossible for them to express themselves using words. This is true for people who are deaf or have severe hearing difficulties, those who cannot speak and anybody else with a difficulty in expressing themselves with words. Many of these people will get some communication skills training to get them up to speed with using non-verbal communication methods only.

Can be Used for Communicating in Secret – There may be times whenever speaking or conveying a message using words is unacceptable due to it being heard of understood by a person who is not supposed to come to know about what we just said. In such situation, we take use physical communicating methods instead to only relay the message to the concerned party. Of course, there are a few limitations still, such as only being able to communicate with somebody within our line of sight.

For Repeating Purposes – Non-verbal communication can help us to repeat what we just said without having to repeat our sentences. Instead of that, we can just use a few signs to convey exactly the same thing.