Kinesics is the way non-verbal communication is expressed, related to touch. It reveals to be an important expression mode in the relationship between mothers and infants. The goal was to compare kinesics communication between an HIV+ mother and her child, in a natural and an experimental environment, during maternal care for bathing and diaper change. Care was filmed in both environments and descriptively analyzed by communication experts. Despite similarities between the use of kinesics in the natural and experimental environment, regarding touch location, intensity and frequency, touch-mediated communication showed to be executed incipiently, mainly in the natural environment. Thus, mothers should be guided and motivated to expand and increase touch while taking care of their children, with a view to early stimulating the expansion of bonding with their children and enhancing the infants' cognitive and relational development.
HIV-1; Child; Communication; Nursing
