Enhancing the Emotion Recognition Skills of Individuals With Learning Disabilities: A Review of the Literature

Background It has been repeatedly demonstrated that individuals with intellectual disabilities experience significant difficulties in recognizing facial expressions of emotion. The aim of this review was to address whether such skills can be enhanced amongst individuals with intellectual disabilities. Materials and Methods The PsychInfo database on Dialog DataStar (1972–2006) was searched for all published journal articles investigating whether emotion recognition skills can be enhanced amongst individuals with intellectual disabilities. Results Four relevant articles were identified. Training in emotion recognition skills resulted in improvements in all four studies, with one study maintaining improvements at 8-month follow-up. Conclusions The four published studies identified that emotion recognition skills can be enhanced and maintained over time. Despite claims in the literature that training in emotion recognition skills will enhance the social skills of individuals with intellectual disabilities, none of the studies considered the impact of training upon everyday functioning, leaving the ultimate efficacy of such training open to question.