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Published on: March 1, 2015
Spontaneous facial expressivity in children with acquired brain injury
S Kupferberg1, M K Morris, R Bakeman
1Department of Psychology, Georgia State University, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
Objectives:
To investigate spontaneous facial behavior during social interaction in children with acquired brain injury (ABI), and to explore possible links between ABI, facial expressivity, and caregiver-reported social competence.
Design:
Between-group comparisons using t tests, within-group comparisons using correlational analyses, correlational analyses of independent variables and outcome measures.
Participants:
Sixteen school-aged children with ABI and 32 normally developing children of comparable age and gender.
Main Outcome Measure:
Aspects of facial expressivity derived from coding scheme designed for this study.
Results:
Children with ABI were less expressive overall and tended to shift expressions less often than normally developing children. Several measures of expressivity were correlated with measures of social competence.
Conclusions:
Brain injury inhibits production of some aspects of spontaneous facial expression. Results are suggestive of links between facial behavior and social skills.
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