The ability of adults with an intellectual disability to recognise facial expressions of emotion in comparison with typically developing individuals: A systematic review

Abstract

This review systematically examined the literature on the ability of adults with an intellectual disability (ID) to recognise facial expressions of emotion. Studies were included that: recruited only adult participants with ID; that did not specifically recruit participants with co-morbid diagnoses of syndrome(s) related to ID; and that directly compared the performance of adults with ID with a group of people without ID. Nine papers met the eligibility criteria for review and were assessed against pre-defined quality rating criteria and the findings synthesised. The majority of included studies were assessed as being of acceptable overall methodological quality. All of the studies reported a relative impairment in emotion recognition for participants with ID on at least some of the tasks administered, with a large effect size being found for most of the significant results. The review suggests that adults with ID are relatively impaired in recognising facial expressions of emotion, when compared with either adults or children without ID. Methodological variation between studies limits the extent to which any interpretations can be made as to the cause of impaired emotion recognition in adults with ID.

The Experiences of People with an Intellectual Disability of a Mindfulness-Based Program

“…Some participants found it difficult at times to verbalise their opinions, and one account was excluded from the analysis due to the participant's expressive difficulties. Many people with ID experience difficulties in recognising and communicating emotions (Scotland et al 2015) and the use of images, prompts (Corby et al 2015), and alternative methods of communication may have enabled the views of participants to be expressed more fully and the inclusion of those with greater difficulties with verbal communication.…”

Emotion recognition and processing style in children with an intellectual disability

“…Emotion recognition has been found to generally improve with age in typically developing children (see Rump et al 2009) but the influence of age on the emotion recognition of people with an intellectual disability is not well-researched. A recent review found only two early studies that examined this (Scotland et al 2015). One found no significant relationship between the two (Leung & Singh 1998), the other found a significant negative relationship between age and emotion recognition (McKenzie et al 2001).…”

“…A further limitation is that the study used static emotion recognition stimuli. While such stimuli reflect the types of materials which are used in both emotion recognition research (see Scotland et al 2015) and interventions which seek to improve socio-emotional skills (e.g. Wood & Stenfert Kroese 2007), emotion processing and recognition in real-life situations are generally dynamic and fleeting.…”

“…People with an intellectual disability have been found to have greater difficulty with recognising their own and others' emotions than their typically developing peers (Scotland et al 2015). Such difficulties have been found to be associated with a number of negative outcomes (see Wood & Stenfert Kroese 2007 for an overview), such as poorer teacher rated mental health in children with developmental disabilities (Ratcliffe et al 2015) and employment breakdown in adults (see Banks et al 2010).…”

An Evaluation of a Mental Health Promotion Programme to Improve Emotional, Social and Coping Skills in Children and Young People Attending Special Schools

“…However, whether this improved ability will generalize to more "real-life" scenarios requires further investigation. Scotland et al (2015) reviewed the literature on emotional recognition abilities in adults with ID and those without ID and found that adults with ID have impairments in emotional recognition in faces highlighting the potential importance of improving these abilities in childhood. The review authors also comment on the infrequent inclusion of control tasks: only two studies out of nine used a control task to investigate whether impairments related to general information processing or whether they were specific to emotional information (Rojahn et al, 1995a,b).…”