Recognition of Immaturity and Emotional Expressions in Blended Faces by Children with Autism and Other Developmental Disabilities

• Published in: Journal of autism and developmental disorders Vol. 38; no. 2; pp. 297 - 311
• Main Author: Gross, Thomas F.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Boston Springer US 01.02.2008; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Adolescent; Age Factors; Ageing; Autism; Autistic Disorder - diagnosis; Autistic Disorder - psychology; Behavioral Science and Psychology; Biological and medical sciences; Child; Child and School Psychology; Child clinical studies; Child Development; Child, Preschool; Concept Formation; Control Groups; Developmental Disabilities; Developmental disorders; Developmentally disabled children; Discrimination Learning; Emotions; Error Patterns; Facial Expression; Facial expressions; Facial maturity; Female; Humans; Identification; Infantile autism; Inferences; Intellectual Disability; Intellectual Disability - diagnosis; Intellectual Disability - psychology; Language Development Disorders - diagnosis; Language Development Disorders - psychology; Language Impairments; Male; Maturity (Individuals); Medical sciences; Mental Retardation; Neurosciences; Nonverbal Communication; Original Paper; Pattern Recognition, Visual; Pediatrics; Psychology; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Public Health; Reading Ability; Resistance (Psychology); Visual Perception; Young Children; Facial Emotion; Autism; Facial Age; Human; Affect affectivity; Emotion emotionality; Developmental disorder; Face; Child; Age; Facial expression; Recognition
• ISSN: 0162-3257; 1573-3432
• DOI: 10.1007/s10803-007-0391-3

The recognition of facial immaturity and emotional expression by children with autism, language disorders, mental retardation, and non-disabled controls was studied in two experiments. Children identified immaturity and expression in upright and inverted faces. The autism group identified fewer immature faces and expressions than control (Exp. 1 & 2), language disordered (Exp. 1), and mental retardation (Exp. 2) groups. Facial inversion interfered with all groups’ recognition of facial immaturity and with control and language disordered groups’ recognition of expression. Error analyses (Exp. 1 & 2) showed similarities between autism and other groups’ perception of immaturity but differences in perception of expressions. Reasons for similarities and differences between children with and without autism when perceiving facial immaturity and expression are discussed.