Abstract

GORDILLO, Fernando et al. Differences in Emotions Recognition in Children 6 to 11 Years Olds. Acta de investigación psicol [online]. 2015, vol.5, n.1, pp.1846-1859. ISSN 2007-4719.

The ability to recognize emotions is necessary for the normal child's adjustment to the social and educational environment, and to identify disorders including autism, anxiety and depression in the early stages of development. An experiment was performed to understanding this process. The participants were 47 children distributed in three groups (6-7, 8-9. 10-11 years). Children had to see pictures of facial and corporal expressions of happiness, sadness, anger and fear. Participants were than asked to say if they recognized the facial and corporal expressed emotion, from a labels related to these basic emotions and represented by emoticons. The results showed enhanced recognition of facial and corporal expressions of fear in children of 8-11 years olds compared to those of 6-7 years olds (p < .01, r > .50). On the other hand, the result showed significant differences (p < .01, r > .50), between children of 6-7 and 8-11 years olds, in the recognition of facial expressions of anger than the corporal expressions of anger. Children of 6-7 years olds showed enhanced recognition of facial expression of anger than corporal expression of anger. These differences were reversed in children of 8-11 years olds. One may conclude that anger and fear facial expressions recognition is an important indicator of the proper development of children. Emotional learning from 7 years olds, will ensure better emotional regulation, and a beneficial effect on the child's performance in school.

Keywords : Facial Expression; Body Expression; Emotion; Children; Recognition.