Comprehension of facial emotion and facial display rules in children with spina bifida.
Published: 2004
Language: eng
Number of pages: 62
Description: Children with spina bifida (SB) have paradoxical social-cognitive abilities. They are friendly and sociable, yet they seem unable to fine-tune their communication to match the needs of the listener. This study investigated the awareness of socially expressed emotion of children with SB. We compared how 12 children with SB and 8 typically developing age peers understood the emotions used to express their feelings (emotional communication), and the emotions used to express socially appropriate affect (emotive communication). Children with SB were less accurate at understanding the displayed facial expressions, and they were less able to identify reasons for modulating the felt emotions in response to social demands. When within-group comparisons were made, children with SB had more difficulty with emotive than with emotional communication. This study yields new findings about the social-cognitive abilities of children with SB, and indicates that they have difficulty with aspects of the social expression of emotion.
Notes: Adviser:  Maureen Dennis.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Toronto, 2004.

Electronic version licensed for access by U. of T. users.

Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 42-06, page: 2345.

MICR copy on microfiche (1 microfiche).