Psychosocial Adjustment, Emotion Understanding, and Emotion Regulation in Young Children with Nonverbal Learning Disabilities
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Date
2010-06-03
Authors
Barton, Veronica
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Abstract
This study compared 10 children between the ages of six and nine identified as having
Nonverbal Learning Disabilities (NLD) and ten normally achieving controls in terms of their
psychosocial functioning, emotion understanding, and emotion regulation. Parents completed
scales assessing participants’ level of social, emotional, and behavioural competence, and
emotion regulation. Children’s recognition of basic emotions (happiness, sadness, anger, and
fearfulness) was assessed through nonverbal channels (pictures of facial expressions, postures,
and tone of voice). Children’s understanding of simultaneously experiencing two conflicting
emotions (mixed emotions) and ways to express emotions (display rules) were assessed through
vignettes that depicted social situations. The results indicated that parents of children with NLD,
compared to children without NLD, rated their children significantly higher on scales of
internalizing (i.e., Affective and Anxiety Problems) and externalizing (i.e.,
Attention/Hyperactivity and Oppositional Defiant Disorder Problems) difficulties, and
significantly lower on a scale of emotion regulation. Compared to children without NLD,
children with NLD were significantly less accurate in identifying happiness through facial
expression, but not through tone of voice or posture. On the vignettes, children with NLD
demonstrated significantly poorer performance on identifying mixed emotions, but not display
rules, compared to children without NLD. These results help to delineate the psychosocial
profile of young children with nonverbal learning disabilities.
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Keywords
Nonverbal learning disabilities , Learning disabled children -- Psychology , Adjustment (Psychology)