The Analysis of Emotion Recognition Skills of Children with Cochlear Implants from Facial Expressions and Scenarios

Objectives: In our cross-sectional research study, the emotion-recognition ability of cochlear-implanted (CI) children is compared to that of normally-hearing (NH) children between four and six years old. For this purpose, thirty (CI) children and thirty NH children were assessed. Materials and Methods: The emotion recognition abilities of each child were evaluated with the use of emotion and scenario cards: the children were asked to identify the feelings which were presented by five emotion cards (for happy, sad, angry, scared and surprised) after viewing ten scenario cards. Results: The results showed that CI children were not able to recognize the five emotion from the two-dimensional stimuli as well as NH children. Conclusion: Our findings support other studies in the literature and follow suit in raising awareness, which may promote the establishment of appropriate training programs, especially since the age of hearing-impaired children is increasing.