Students with learning disabilities (LD) have been found to exhibit social difficulties compared to those without LD (Wong, 2004). Recognition, expression, and understanding of facial expressions of emotions have been shown to be important for social functioning (Custrini & Feldman, 1989; Philippot & Feldman, 1990). LD subtypes have been studied (Rourke, 1999) and children with nonverbal learning disabilities (NVLD) have been observed to be worse at recognizing facial expressions compared to children with verbal learning disabilities (VLD), no learning disability (NLD; Dimitrovsky, Spector, Levy-Shiff, & Vakil, 1998; Dimitrovsky, Spector, & Levy-Shiff, 2000), and those with psychiatric difficulties without LD controls (Petti, Voelker, Shore, & Hyman-Abello, 2003). However, little has been done in this area with adolescents with NVLD. Recognition, expression and understanding facial expressions of emotion, as well as general social functioning have yet to be studied simultaneously among adolescents with NVLD, NLD, and general learning disabilities (GLD). The purpose of this study was to examine abilities of adolescents with NVLD, GLD, and without LD to recognize, express, and understand facial expressions of emotion, in addition to their general social functioning. / Adolescents aged 12 to 15 were screened for LD and NLD using the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children---Third Edition (WISC-III; Weschler, 1991) and the Wide Range Achievement Test---Third Edition (WRAT3; Wilkinson, 1993) and subtyped into NVLD and GLD groups based on the WRAT3. The NVLD ( n = 23), matched NLD (n = 23), and a comparable GLD (n = 23) group completed attention, mood, and neuropsychological measures. The adolescent's ability to recognize (Pictures of Facial Affect; Ekman & Friesen, 1976), express, and understand facial expressions of emotion, and their general social functioning was assessed. Results indicated that the GLD group was significantly less accurate at recognizing and understanding facial expressions of emotion compared to the NVLD and NLD groups, who did not differ from each other. No differences emerged between the NVLD, NLD, and GLD groups on the expression or social functioning tasks. The neuropsychological measures did not account for a significant portion of the variance on the emotion tasks. Implications regarding severity of LD are discussed.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.100323 |
| Date | January 2005 |
| Creators | Bloom, Elana. |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Doctor of Philosophy (Department of Educational and Counselling Psychology.) |
| Rights | © Elana Bloom, 2005 |
| Relation | alephsysno: 002495388, proquestno: AAINR25102, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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