On Nonverbal Behavior

A recent report from the U. S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare estimates that about 4,752,000 (somewhat over ten percent) of the 44,389,000 young people in public elementary and secondary schools are handicapped.1 These figures include young people who are speech impaired, learning disabled, mentally retarded. emotionally disturbed, hard of hearing. deaf, crippled, partially sighted. or blind. As significant as these totals are, there is reason to believe that a major category of handicapped young people was overlooked, one that probably includes more people than all of the other categories combined. These are the young people suffering from the handicap of communication apprehension. The fact that the HEW figures do not include communication apprehension should not come as a surprise. Relatively little attention has been paid to the problem even by professionals in the field of human communication. and even less by teachers and administrators in the public schools. Evidence is acumulating, however. that not only is a very large percentage of the population affected by this handicap, but also that communication apprehension may impinge on