Misael Alvarado Jr
Keiser University
Analysis: Facial Mimicry In 6-7-Year-Olds
The article “Facial Mimicry in 6-7-Year-Old Children with Disruptive Behavior Disorder and ADHD” is a study by a group of researchers (Peter Deschamps, Nicolette Munsters, Leon Kenemans, Dennis Schutter, Walter Matthys) who aim to find the prevalence of facial mimicry, defined as a response of emotion that is brought upon by the another’s emotional state, in children between the age of six and seven with either Attention-Deficit/Hyperactive Disorder or Disruptive Behavioral Disorder. The study is important to determine whether there is a disadvantage in emotional awareness in children with symptoms of ADHD or DBD, if so, …show more content…
The study, too, points out the small size of children with DBD without ADHD. Previous studies managed to discover impaired emotional processing in boys with ADHD, as mention by the study. Another issue being that the participants were at a smaller age than the average age of the previous studies. The issue that this experiment brings up is that the of adolescence may be a factor when researching facial mimicry. Previous experiments were able to discover a correlation, unlike this investigation, it may be that children within the age of 6-7 have similar facial mimicry patterns due to little experience in outside interactions. “Previous facial mimicry studies in school-aged (mean age 10 years) and adolescents (mean age 13 years) with disruptive behavior disorder (DBD) suggest deficits in response to negative not positive emotions” (Deschamps, Munsters, Kenemans, Schutter, & Matthys, 2014). After children reach a certain age researchers may be able to find more correlation in impaired emotional …show more content…
This study allow may have not produced any results, but it has created new questions for researchers to try and solve. The study had it a few problems that may have skewed the results, which it acknowledges as, it gave a detailed explanation as to how this experiment can be repeated. Should this experiment be repeated and create results, it could create an indicator for psychologist who handle children with ADHD or DBD. So far, there has not been correlation between facial mimicry and 6-7-year-old children with ADHD or DBD, unlike the other studies who tested on older children. To conclude, this article is an effective tool for beginning research on children with ADHD or DBD, that highlights pitfalls to avoid, while simultaneously giving detailed records for other psychologists to follow.
References
Deschamps P, Munsters N, Kenemans L, Schutter, Matthys W (2014) Facial Mimicry in 6-7 Year Old Children with Disruptive Behavior Disorder and ADHD. PLosONE 9(1): e84965.