Is Autism, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Specific Learning Disorder linked to Impaired Emotion Recognition in Primary School Aged Children?

Facial expressions are important in decoding meaning and communicating information. Participants were fifty-eight Cypriot and Italian children between 6 and 11 years of age. Comparisons were made between the clinical group, composed of children with ADHD, ASD and learning disorder and the control group, composed of typically developing children. The six primary emotional facial expressions were investigated which were portrayed by contemporary faces of children and adults of both genders. There was a significant main effect for group and a significant main effect for emotion, with happiness being the most accurately decoded emotion followed by anger, surprise, sadness, disgust and fear. Significant interactions were found involving the type of stimuli, emotions and participants’ group. The results of the study are discussed considering past research and future directions.