Nonverbal Communication Nonverbal communication is all wordless communication; posture, tone, facial expression, touch, and the deliberate lack of speaking and gesturing. Nonverbal communication, like verbal communication, exists between two or more people. Understanding nonverbal communication skills increases success in both personal relationships and workplace environments. Verbal and nonverbal messages interact with each other in six major ways: to accent, to complement, to contradict, to control, to repeat, and to substitute for each other (DeVito, 2013). Most communication passes between people nonverbally. Since the amount of nonverbal communication is so great, it follows that there are many kinds of nonverbal messages and channels. The basic categories for nonverbal communication are gesture, body appearance, facial communication, eye communication, touch communication, paralanguage, silence, spatial, artifactual, and temporal (DeVito, 2013). Nonverbal messages are an important part of effective communication and a skill that can be learned. It is complex and presents patterns in relationships. Mastering nonverbal communication should be a goal of all people. Relationship Stages Developing interpersonal relationships follow predictable stages. Joseph DeVito (2013) outlines six stages. The initial stage is contact. During the contact stage, people are introduced and form first impressions. The second stage is involvement and it is full of self-disclosures. Intimacy is the third stage and it characterized by increased self-disclosure, a merging of social networks and a degree of commitment. The last three stages: deterioration, repair and dissolution signal the ending of a relationship. Movement between these stages is not linear; people can move in and out of stages in any way (DeVito, 2013). Knapp (1980) presents another model which is categorized into ten different stages, split into relationship progression and deteriorat