THE RECOGNITION OF FACIAL EXPRESSIONS AND EMOTIONS IN DEAF AND HARD OF HEARING CHILDREN

Abstract

The main goal of the paper is to examine comprehension of basic emotion and facial expression of children with hearing impairment. The research encompasses a sample of 66 respondents out of which 33 have non-damaged hearing and the remaining 33 respondents have hearing impairment. The age of respondents ranges, in chronological order, from 7 to 15 years. Recognition of emotions and facial expressions is being examined through 4 sets of tasks. The Emotion Recognition Test (ERT) is being used for evaluation, it has been adapted for the purpose of this paper and thereby adjusted for electronic usage via computer and internet. Through statistical processing of given data, following components have been calculated: minimal and maximum values, arithmetic mean, standard deviation, Wilcoxon Signed Ranks Test, Mann-Whitney U test, curvature test and flattening of distribution curve, t-test. Research results concluded that hearing impairment in children affects, with statistical significance, recognition and comprehension of facial expressions and emotions compared to their peers with no hearing impairment. The results were expected given the hearing condition and the consequences which hearing impairment creates. Children with hearing impairment possess poor vocabulary which affects comprehension of emotions. Statistically significant difference occurs among children with hearing impairments and recognition and comprehension of facial expression and emotions within situational context and isolated facial expressions.Key words: deaf children, comprehension of emotions, emotions of the deaf, facial expressions, hearing impairments.