Interpretation of Facial Expressions of Affect in Children with Learning Disabilities with Verbal or Nonverbal Deficits
Rationale: The ability to identify facial expressions
of happiness, sadness, anger, surprise, fear, and disgust was studied in 124
children. Some of these children were nondisabled and some of them had learning
disabilities (LD). The children with the learning disabilities were then divided
into three subgroups: Those with verbal deficits (VD), nonverbal deficits (NVD),
and both verbal and nonverbal deficits (BD). The hypothesis is that children
with nonverbal deficits will struggle a little bit more with figuring out
nonverbal expressions.
Patients and Methods: The participants in this study were students in
Grades 3 through 6 in five school in middle class neighborhoods. These schools
had both LD classes as well as general education classes. To be selected as a
participant with LD, they had to have certain criteria. The first was they were
diagnosed as learning disabled by the school district psychological services. To
be diagnosed, the children had to take a Hebrew version of an achievement test,
as well as additional tests. The achievement test scores had to be at least 2
years below grade level. The second criteria was absence of extreme behavioral
or attentional difficulties. The third criteria was the absence of frank
neurological problems. And the last criteria was they had to be a residence in
Israel for at least the past four years of when the study was conducted. In this
group of LD children, there were 76 participants, 54 boys and 22 girls. In the
nondisabled group, it consisted of 48 students, 29 boys and 19 girls. All of the
participants were then split up for age groups. The age groups were 9-10 and
11-12.
There were two different tests that were used on both the LD
children and those children without. One was sensitivity to facial expressions
of emotion, and the other was verbal and nonverbal functioning. Sensitivity to
facial expressions of emotion was measured with Ekman and Friesen's Pictures of
Facial Affect (PFA). The PFA consists of 110 35-mm black-and-white slides of
faces of men and women expressing happiness, sadness, anger, surprise, fear, and
disgust, as well as a set of neutral faces. There were two tests used for the
verbal and nonverbal portion of the study. The first was the Rey Auditory Verbal
Learning Test. The second test is the Benton Visual Retention Test (BVRT). This
test consists of three parallel sets of 10 cards with geometric designs. Each
design is exposed for 10 seconds and the student then draws it from memory.
Another version of this is each design is exposed for 10 seconds and the
participants reproduces it from memory after a 15-second delay.
Each child was seen once for 75-90 minutes in a room by themselves with only the
tester. The PFA was the first test done. While they were in the room, they had a
brief discussion about feelings, followed by practice in interpreting emotions
from facial expressions. Then, six slides that were not used in the test were
used. They went over these to make sure the child knew what expressions they
were. The correct response was confirmed, and incorrect responses were talked
about as to why they were incorrect. After these six slides were done, they
moved onto the 48 slide test. Each slide was exposed for 10 seconds. If there
was more than one answer given, the tester would ask the child to choose one
answer. After the PFA was completed, there was a 2-minute break, then the
students had to take the Rey AVLT. There were seven ways the test scores were
calculated. Immediate memory, best learning, proactive interference, retroactive
interference, delayed recall, recognition, and temporal order. The second part
of the verbal and nonverbal test was the BVRT.
Results: Outof the six emotions, happiness was the easiest to identify for all of the
children. Fear and disgust were the hardest to identify for everyone. For the
most part, children with both verbal and nonverbal deficits had the hardest
time identifying the emotions and children with no learning disabilities had
the easiest. Out of the three subgroups, those with a verbal deficit had a
better understanding and ability to recognize the different emotions. The order
of emotions from easiest to identify to hardest are as follows: Happiness,
anger, surprise, sadness, fear, and disgust.
Discussion:
The finding that all three subgroups in the learning disability group were less
accurate than the nondisabled group in identifying facial expressions of emotion
matches evidence from previous research. They think this is true because of a
lack of proficiency in understanding the subtleties of nonverbal communication
in general. As hypothesized, children with nonverbal deficits were less
successful in interpreting emotions from facial expression than those with only
verbal deficits.
Reflection:
We found this study to be interesting, especially as we have
been studying about kinesics. It is interesting to see the results. We were not
very surprised to see that those with nonverbal deficits had a harder time
figuring out facial expressions. We were not surprised because those with
nonverbal deficits don't really understand nonverbal communication as well as
other people would.
Application:
You could use this study in the real world, especially if you
are thinking of becoming a teacher. This would help because then you would be
able to understand that it will take longer for them to learn. Sometimes when
they are working on homework, they won't understand the problems and they might
have a blank expression on their face. You have to be willing to work with them
and not get frustrated.
of happiness, sadness, anger, surprise, fear, and disgust was studied in 124
children. Some of these children were nondisabled and some of them had learning
disabilities (LD). The children with the learning disabilities were then divided
into three subgroups: Those with verbal deficits (VD), nonverbal deficits (NVD),
and both verbal and nonverbal deficits (BD). The hypothesis is that children
with nonverbal deficits will struggle a little bit more with figuring out
nonverbal expressions.
Patients and Methods: The participants in this study were students in
Grades 3 through 6 in five school in middle class neighborhoods. These schools
had both LD classes as well as general education classes. To be selected as a
participant with LD, they had to have certain criteria. The first was they were
diagnosed as learning disabled by the school district psychological services. To
be diagnosed, the children had to take a Hebrew version of an achievement test,
as well as additional tests. The achievement test scores had to be at least 2
years below grade level. The second criteria was absence of extreme behavioral
or attentional difficulties. The third criteria was the absence of frank
neurological problems. And the last criteria was they had to be a residence in
Israel for at least the past four years of when the study was conducted. In this
group of LD children, there were 76 participants, 54 boys and 22 girls. In the
nondisabled group, it consisted of 48 students, 29 boys and 19 girls. All of the
participants were then split up for age groups. The age groups were 9-10 and
11-12.
There were two different tests that were used on both the LD
children and those children without. One was sensitivity to facial expressions
of emotion, and the other was verbal and nonverbal functioning. Sensitivity to
facial expressions of emotion was measured with Ekman and Friesen's Pictures of
Facial Affect (PFA). The PFA consists of 110 35-mm black-and-white slides of
faces of men and women expressing happiness, sadness, anger, surprise, fear, and
disgust, as well as a set of neutral faces. There were two tests used for the
verbal and nonverbal portion of the study. The first was the Rey Auditory Verbal
Learning Test. The second test is the Benton Visual Retention Test (BVRT). This
test consists of three parallel sets of 10 cards with geometric designs. Each
design is exposed for 10 seconds and the student then draws it from memory.
Another version of this is each design is exposed for 10 seconds and the
participants reproduces it from memory after a 15-second delay.
Each child was seen once for 75-90 minutes in a room by themselves with only the
tester. The PFA was the first test done. While they were in the room, they had a
brief discussion about feelings, followed by practice in interpreting emotions
from facial expressions. Then, six slides that were not used in the test were
used. They went over these to make sure the child knew what expressions they
were. The correct response was confirmed, and incorrect responses were talked
about as to why they were incorrect. After these six slides were done, they
moved onto the 48 slide test. Each slide was exposed for 10 seconds. If there
was more than one answer given, the tester would ask the child to choose one
answer. After the PFA was completed, there was a 2-minute break, then the
students had to take the Rey AVLT. There were seven ways the test scores were
calculated. Immediate memory, best learning, proactive interference, retroactive
interference, delayed recall, recognition, and temporal order. The second part
of the verbal and nonverbal test was the BVRT.
Results: Outof the six emotions, happiness was the easiest to identify for all of the
children. Fear and disgust were the hardest to identify for everyone. For the
most part, children with both verbal and nonverbal deficits had the hardest
time identifying the emotions and children with no learning disabilities had
the easiest. Out of the three subgroups, those with a verbal deficit had a
better understanding and ability to recognize the different emotions. The order
of emotions from easiest to identify to hardest are as follows: Happiness,
anger, surprise, sadness, fear, and disgust.
Discussion:
The finding that all three subgroups in the learning disability group were less
accurate than the nondisabled group in identifying facial expressions of emotion
matches evidence from previous research. They think this is true because of a
lack of proficiency in understanding the subtleties of nonverbal communication
in general. As hypothesized, children with nonverbal deficits were less
successful in interpreting emotions from facial expression than those with only
verbal deficits.
Reflection:
We found this study to be interesting, especially as we have
been studying about kinesics. It is interesting to see the results. We were not
very surprised to see that those with nonverbal deficits had a harder time
figuring out facial expressions. We were not surprised because those with
nonverbal deficits don't really understand nonverbal communication as well as
other people would.
Application:
You could use this study in the real world, especially if you
are thinking of becoming a teacher. This would help because then you would be
able to understand that it will take longer for them to learn. Sometimes when
they are working on homework, they won't understand the problems and they might
have a blank expression on their face. You have to be willing to work with them
and not get frustrated.