Review Article

Emotional development in deaf children: facial expression, emotional understanding, display rules, mixed emotions, and theory of mind

Abstract

Background and Aim: Various studies indicate that deaf children compared with hearing children have problems in all aspects of emotional development, including facial expression, emotional understanding of display rules, mixed and contradictory emotions and theory of mind. This article reviews studies of impaired emotional development in children with hearing impairment.
Recent Findings: Some findings indicate that young deaf children function similar to hearing children. The difficulty in understanding display rules experienced by deaf children can be explained by appealing to their inability to adequately express emotions in emotion-eliciting contexts, as opposed to their difficulty in understanding mental states. Overall, research findings indicate that emotional understanding in various aspects and dimensions is associated with children's language abilities.
Conclusion: Results obtained show that more aspects of deaf children 's emotional development (such as interpretation and recognition of facial expression) are similar to that of their peers. However, deaf children performed more poorly in tasks which required experience in understanding display rules and theory of mind . Recent findings generally demonstrate that language plays an important role in the emotional development of children. Therefore, deaf children in comparison to hearing children are less able performers.

1. Barrett KC. The development of nonverbal communication of emotion: A functionalist perspective. J Nonverbal Behav. 1993;17(3):145-69.
2. Matsuda YT, Ueno K, Cheng K, Konishi Y, Mazuka R, Okanoya K. Auditory observation of infant-directed speech by mothers: experience-dependent interaction between language and emotion in the basal ganglia. Front Hum Neurosci. 2014;8:907.
3. Frankel KA, Croy CD, Kubicek LF, Emde RN, Mitchell CM, Spicer P. Toddler socioemotional behavior in a northern plains Indian tribe: associations with maternal psychosocial well-being. Infant Ment Health J. 2014;35(1):10-20.
4. Young-Browne G, Rosenfeld HM, Horowitz FD. Infant discrimination of facial expressions. Child Dev. 1977;48(2):555-62.
5. Barrera ME, Maurer D. The perception of facial expressions by the three-month-old. Child Dev. 1981;52(1):203-6.
6. Kuchuk A, Vibbert M, Bornstein MH. The perception of smiling and its experiential correlates in three-month-old infants. Child Dev. 1986;57(4):1054-61.
7. Kestenbaum R, Nelson C. The recognition and categorization of upright and inverted emotional expressions by 7-month-old infants. Infant Behav Dev. 1990;13(4):497-511.
8. Feinman S. In the broad valley: an integrative look at social referencing. In: Feinman S, editor. Social referencing and the social construction of reality in infancy. 1st ed. New York: Springer; 1992. p. 3-14.
9. Borke H. Interpersonal perception of young children: Egocentrism or empathy? Dev Psychol. 1971;5(2):263-9.
10. Brody LR, Harrison RH. Developmental changes in children's abilities to match and label emotionally laden situations. Motiv Emot. 1987;11(4):347-65.
11. Gagnon M, Gosselin P, Maassarani R. Children's ability to recognize emotions from partial and complete facial expressions. J Genet Psychol. 2014;175(5):416-30.
12. Phillips RD, Wagner SH, Fells CA, Lynch M. Do infants recognize emotion in facial expressions?: Categorical and “Metaphorical” evidence. Infant Behav Dev. 1990;13(1):71-84.
13. Walker-Andrews AS, Lennon E. Infants' discrimination of vocal expressions: Contributions of auditory and visual information. Infant Behav Dev. 1991;14(2):131-42.
14. Bretherton I, Fritz J, Zahn-Waxler C, Ridgeway D. Learning to talk about emotions: a functionalist perspective. Child Development. 1986;57(3):529-48.
15. De Giacomo A, Craig F, D'Elia A, Giagnotti F, Matera E, Quaranta N. Children with cochlear implants: cognitive skills, adaptive behaviors, social and emotional skills. Int J Pediatr Otorhinolaryngol. 2013;77(12):1975-9.
16. Dyck MJ, Farrugia C, Shochet IM, HolmesBrown M. Emotion recognition/understanding ability in hearing or vision-impaired children: do sounds, sights, or words make the difference? J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 2004;45(4):789-800..
17. McCullough S, Emmorey K, Sereno M. Neural organization for recognition of grammatical and emotional facial expressions in deaf ASL signers and hearing nonsigners. Brain Res Cogn Brain Res. 2005;22(2):193-203.
18. Dyck MJ, Denver E. Can the emotion recognition ability of deaf children be enhanced? A pilot study. J Deaf Stud Deaf Educ. 2003;8(3):348-56.
19. Wiefferink CH, Rieffe C, Ketelaar L, De Raeve L, Frijns JH. Emotion understanding in deaf children with a cochlear implant. J Deaf Stud Deaf Educ. 2013;18(2):175-86.
20. Ziv M, Most T, Cohen S. Understanding of emotions and false beliefs among hearing children versus deaf children. J Deaf Stud Deaf Educ. 2013;18(2):161-74.
21. Russell JA, Bullock M. On the dimensions preschoolers use to interpret facial expressions of emotion. Dev Psychol. 1986;22(1):97-102.
22. Ludlow A, Heaton P, Rosset D, Hills P, Deruelle C. Emotion recognition in children with profound and severe deafness: do they have a deficit in perceptual processing? J Clin Exp Neuropsychol. 2010;32(9):923-8.
23. Hopyan T, Gordon KA, Papsin BC. Identifying emotions in music through electrical hearing in deaf children using cochlear implants. Cochlear Implants Int. 2011;12(1):21-6.
24. Livingstone SR, Thompson WF, Wanderley MM, Palmer C. Common cues to emotion in the dynamic facial expressions of speech and song. Q J Exp Psychol (Hove). 2014;1-19.
25. Seidenfeld AM, Johnson SR, Cavadel EW, Izard CE. Theory of mind predicts emotion knowledge development in head start children. Early Educ Dev. 2014;25(7):933-48.
26. Denham SA, Zoller D, Couchoud EA. Socialization of preschoolers' emotion understanding. Dev Psychol. 1994;30(6):928-36.
27. Lederberg AR, Mobley CE. The effect of hearing impairment on the quality of attachment and mother-toddler interaction. Child Dev. 1990;61(5):1596-604.
28. Wedell-Monnig J, Lumley JM. Child deafnes and mother-child interaction. Child Dev. 1980;51(3):766-74.
29. Hosie JA, Russell PA, Gray CD, Scott C, Hunter N, Banks JS, et al. Knowledge of display rules in prelingually deaf and hearing children. J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 2000;41(3):389-98.
30. Harris P. Children and emotion: the development of psychological understanding. 1st ed. Oxford: Basil Blackwell Publishing; 1989.
31. Campos JJ, Campos RG, Barrett KC. Emergent themes in the study of emotional development and emotion regulation. Dev Psychol. 1989;25(3):394-402.
32. Donaldson SK, Westerman MA. Development of children's understanding of ambivalence and causal theories of emotions. Dev Psychol. 1986;22(5):655-62.
33. Harter S, Buddin BJ. Children's understanding of the simultaneity of two emotions: A fivestage developmental acquisition sequence. Dev Psychol. 1987;23(3):388-99.
34. Harter S. A cognitive-developmental approach to children's expression of conflicting feelings and a technique to facilitate such expression in play therapy. J Consult Clin Psychol. 1977;45(3):417-32.
35. Harris PL. Children's understanding of the link between situation and emotion. J Exp Child Psychol. 1983;36(3):490-509.
36. Kestenbaum R, Gelman SA. Preschool children's identification and understanding of. mixed emotions. Cogn Dev. 1995;10(3):443-58.
37. Plessow-Wolfson S, Epstein F. The experience of story reading: deaf children and hearing mothers' interactions at story time. Am Ann Deaf. 2005;150(4):369-78.
38. Cutting AL, Dunn J. The cost of understanding other people: social cognition predicts young children's sensitivity to criticism. J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 2002;43(7):849-60.
39. Happé FG. The role of age and verbal ability in the theory of mind task performance of subjects with autism. Child Dev. 1995;66(3):843-55.
40. Hughes C, Leekam S. What are the links between theory of mind and social relations? review, reflections and new directions for studies of typical and atypical development. Soc Dev. 2004;13(4):590-619.
41. Peterson CC, Siegal M. Mindreading and moral awareness in popular and rejected preschoolers. Br J Dev Psychol. 2002;20(2):205-24.
42. Slaughter V, Dennis MJ, Pritchard M. Theory of mind and peer acceptance in preschool children. Br J Dev Psychol. 2002;20(4):545-64.
43. Wimmer H, Perner J. Beliefs about beliefs: representation and constraining function of wrong beliefs in young children's understanding of deception. Cognition. 1983;13(1):103-28.
44. Peterson CC, Siegal M. Insights into theory of mind from deafness and autism. Mind Lang. 2000;15(1):123-45.
45. Milligan K, Astington JW, Dack LA. Language and theory of mind: meta-analysis of the relation between language ability and false-belief understanding. Child Dev. 2007;78(2):622-46.
46. Morgan G, Kegl J. Nicaraguan sign language and theory of mind: the issue of critical periods and abilities. J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 2006;47(8):811-9.
47. Baron-Cohen S, Leslie AM, Frith U. Does the autistic child have a "theory of mind"? Cognition. 1985;21(1):37-46.
48. Schick B, de Villiers P, de Villiers J, Hoffmeister R. Language and theory of mind: a study of deaf children. Child Dev. 2007;78(2):376-96.
49. Siegal M, Varley R. Neural systems involved in "theory of mind". Nat Rev Neurosci. 2002;3(6):463-71.
50. Woolfe T, Want SC, Siegal M. Signposts to development: theory of mind in deaf children. Child Dev. 2002;73(3):768-78.
51. Siegal M. Language and thought: the fundamental significance of conversational awareness for cognitive development. Dev Sci. 1999;2(1):1-14.
52. Sundqvist A, Lyxell B, Jönsson R, Heimann M. Understanding minds: early cochlear implantation and the development of theory of mind in children with profound hearing impairment. Int J Pediatr Otorhinolaryngol. 2014;78(3):537-43.
53. Courtin C, Melot AM. Metacognitive development of deaf children: lessons from the appearance-reality and false belief tasks. Dev Sci. 2005;8(1):16-25.
54. DesJardin JL, Doll ER, Stika CJ, Eisenberg LS, Johnson KJ, Ganguly DH, et al. Parental support for language development during joint book reading for young children with hearing loss. Commun Disord Q. 2014;35(3):167-81.
55. Strong M, Prinz P. A study of the relationship between American sign language and English literacy. J Deaf Stud Deaf Educ. 1997;2(1):37-46.
56. Supalla T, Hauser PC, Bavelier D. Reproducing American sign language sentences: cognitive scaffolding in working memory. Front Psychol. 2014;5:859.
57. Geers A, Moog J, Schick B. Acquisition of spoken and signed English by profoundly deaf children. J Speech Hear Disord. 1984;49(4):378-88.
58. Malaia E, Talavage TM, Wilbur RB. Functional connectivity in task-negative network of the deaf: effects of sign language
59. experience. PeerJ. 2014;2:e446.
60. 59. Morgan G. On language acquisition in speech and sign: development of combinatorial structure in both modalities. Front Psychol. 2014;5:1217.
61. 60. de Villiers PA. The role of language in theory-of-mind development: what deaf children tell us. In: Astington JW, Baird JA, editors. Why language matters for theory of mind. 1st ed. New York: Oxford University Press, Inc.; 2005. p. 266-97.
62. 61. Courtin C. The impact of sign language on the cognitive development of deaf children: the case of theories of mind. J Deaf Stud Deaf Educ. 2000;5(3):266-76.
63. 62. Premack D, Woodruff G. Does the chimpanzee have a theory of mind? JBBS. 1978;1(4):515-26. 63. Happé F, Frith U. Theory of mind and social impairment in children with conduct disorder. Br J Dev Psychol. 1996;14(4):385-98.
64. Jenkins JM, Astington JW. Cognitive factors and family structure associated with theory of mind development in young children. Dev Psychol. 1996;32(1):70-8.
65. Jackson CW, Schatschneider C. Rate of language growth in children with hearing loss in an auditory-verbal early intervention program. Am Ann Deaf. 2014;158(5):539-54.
66. Sung J, Hsu HC. Collaborative mother-toddler communication and theory of mind development at age 4. J Appl Dev Psychol. 2014;35(5):381-91.
67. Dunn J, Brown J, Slomkowski C, Tesla C, Youngblade L. Young children's understanding of other people's feelings and beliefs: individual differences and their antecedents. Child Dev. 1991;62(6):1352-66.
68. Brown JR, Donelan-McCall N, Dunn J. Why talk about mental states? The significance of children's conversations with friends, siblings, and mothers. Child Dev. 1996;67(3):836-49.
69. Ruffman T, Perner J, Parkin L. How parenting style affects false belief understanding. Soc Dev. 1999;8(3):395-411.
70. Peterson CC, Siegal M. Deafness, conversation and theory of mind. J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 1995;36(3):459-74.
IssueVol 23 No 6 (2015) QRcode
SectionReview Article(s)
Keywords
Hearing-impaired children facial expression emotional development mixed emotions and theory of mind display rules

Rights and permissions
Creative Commons License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
How to Cite
1.
Movallali G, Imani M. Emotional development in deaf children: facial expression, emotional understanding, display rules, mixed emotions, and theory of mind. Aud Vestib Res. 2017;23(6):1-16.