Emotions and nonverbal communication in children with
different types of language impairment
Ann-Christin Månsson
Department of Linguistics and SSKKII Center for Cognitive Science
Göteborg University, Box 200, SE-40530, SWEDEN
INTRODUCTION
Children with language impairment have great
difficulty in their daily life trying to make themselves
understood by parents or other persons. Children with
different types of language impairment have different
problems both in production and language
comprehension. A group of children have problems
of language comprehension affecting both single
words and sentences. Another group have problems
with the production of mainly phonology and
grammar (syntax and morphology), but also phoneme
discrimination tasks, although they have no language
comprehension problem according to TROG (Test for
the reception of grammar), Bishop (1989).
The aim of this study is to provide further
information about nonverbal communication (NVC)
and different emotions expressed in a situation where
the children have wordfinding problems and when
not being understood by the interlocutor. Two
different situations were observed, confrontation
naming and a spontaneous siuation, where the
children are supposed to tell the pre-school teacher
what they wish as a present.
My hypothesis is that children are very aware of their
inability to communicate satisfactorily, and that the
emotions they feel will show in their use of NVC.
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
Can different types of NVC show emotions the
children feel when having wordfinding problems or
when not being able to say the word correct
phonologically?
Do the children seek help from the interlocutor
nonverbally?
Do the children use different NVC in confrontation
naming compared to a spontaneous situation?
Are there any differences between the groups ?
ANALYSIS
The videotapes were examined several times. The
NVC was observed when the children had
wordfinding problems and were misunderstood. Two
different situations were observed, confrontation
naming and a spontaneous speech situation. The
NVC was categorized according to Allwood (1998)
and Ekman and Friesen (E&F) (1969, 1981).
Headmovements in this study included nodding,
shaking, tilting head to one side, pushing head
forward as these occured in the material. Rocking
head, jerking head backwards and forward rocking
were also observed, but did not occur in this material.
Facial expressions such as surprise, fear, disqust,
anger, happiness and sadness were observed, but the
children were neutral apart from smiling when they
didn¹t find the word or were misunderstood. Facial
gestures (Allwood 1998) observed in this study were
wrinkling eyebrows, while raising eyebrows did not
occur in this material. Smiling was classified as facial
expression. The Gazes observed were gazing around
at other interlocutors, gazing down, gazing at
speaker, seeking eye contact and other gazes being
observed in this material were gazing at own hands
gesturing, gazing at handling artefacts and this did
not occur in the material. Laughter did not occur in
this material. Body postures like leaning forward,
body contracted and moving shoulders were
observed. Selftouching (selfadaptors) (Ekman and
Friesen 1981) were observed. Movements of arms
and hands like iconic illustrations (Allwood 1998)
pictographs (Ekman and Friesen 1981), batons
(E&F), spatial movements (E&F), arms crossed
(Allwood 1998) moving finger (Allwood 1998) and
pointing (deictic movements) (Ekman and Friesen
1981).
RESULTS
Emotions are shown in the NVC that children with
different types of language impairment use. In the
study by Allwood 1998 the giving and eliciting of
mutual support and agreement is primarily achieved
through headnodding, headshaking and smiling. The
SEM/LEX group have similar kinds of NVC to adults
for cooperation in the dialogue. Elicitation of
feedback is done through gazing, head raising and
smiling, this was mostly used by the PHON/GRAM
group. The emotion shown when not being
understood is a type of shame feeling. The children
are also very dependent on the interlocutor and are
seeking confirmation a lot. Thus, the language
problems they have may not be good for their
selfesteem. The children in both groups are pleading
for help from the interlocutor with their NVC. The
children are experts in getting the interlocutor to help
them out in misunderstandings and wordfinding
problems. This gives the impression that the language
they use is more advanced than it in fact is, primarily
because they are so good att accentuating nonverbal
communication.
Bishop, D.V.N (1989) Test for the reception of
grammar, manual (2nd edition). Cambridge: Medical
Research Council.
REFERENCES
Ekman, P. & Friesen, W.B. (1981).The repertoire of
nonverbal behaviour: categories, origins, usage, and
coding. In Kendon, A. Nonverbal communication,
interaction and gesture. The Hague. Paris: Mouton
Publishers.
Allwood, J. (1998) Cooperation and flexibility in
multimodal communication.University of Göteborg,
Department of Linguistics, Göteborg, Sweden.
Ekman, P.& Friesen, W. B. (1969) The repertoire of
nonverbal behaviour: Categories, origins, usage and
coding. Semiotica, 1: 49-98.