Babies are definitely much more aware of body language at a young age. They’ll cry even before learning words if you express that they should cry. Example: they hit themselves with a shovel you run over, worried, and ask if they’re okay, they think “oh I was supposed to be in pain” and will cry. If you’re chill in that situation the kid might not even be aware they could reasonably cry in that situation

I mean, I’ve known how to speak for a long time now, but I still haven’t developed the ability to read body language…

We’re more or less born being able to “read” facial expressions and tone of voice. IDK about body language.

I’m autistic so for me it was speech first. Didn’t really learn to read body language until my teenage years and it was something I had to actively force myself to learn. Still can’t really do it all that well though to be honest.

Depends how autistic you are

I work in early years. Yes babies have a great understanding of body language and facial expression long before they can talk to communicate.

Young children are actually far more intelligent than most people give them credit for. Just because they can’t communicate it the same language as us yet doesn’t mean they don’t know what they’re doing.

If they didn’t understand body language, how would they bond with people? And people bond back with them? Not to be insulting, but it’s like with pets. We can build bonds with them because we learnt to understand each others body language even though we don’t speak the same language

I have a niece that is not yet 2 and I can tell you she reads body language and practices it along with speaking. Her body language is a lot better then her spoken language by far.