March 31, 2011

Misreading Faces Tied To Child Social Anxiety

By Carol Clark, Emory University


"If you misread facial expressions, you're in social trouble, no matter what other social skills you have," says Emory psychologist Steve Nowicki, a clinical researcher who developed the tests used in the study. "It can make life very difficult, because other people's faces are like a prism through which we look at the world."

It's easy to assume that a socially anxious child would be especially sensitive to anger. "It turns out that they never learn to pick up on anger and often make the error of seeing it as sadness," Nowicki says. "It sets up a very problematic interaction."




By identifying the patterns of errors in nonverbal communication, Nowicki hopes to create better diagnostic tools and interventions for those affected with behavioral disorders.

For more than two decades, in association with Emory psychologist Marshall Duke, Nowicki has produced a groundbreaking body of work on how non-verbal communication impacts a child's development. They have found that in a range of children with behavioral disorders, including high-functioning autism, direct teaching can improve their non-verbal communication.

"When I first started this work, people asked me, why are you doing this? Everybody can recognize emotions in faces," Nowicki recalls. Nonverbal communication was not taken that seriously, and relegated to popular magazine articles like, "Seven ways to improve your body language."


"My heart went out to these kids," he says. "I had the idea that nonverbal communication could be taught. It's a skill, not something mysterious."



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