Facial expressions of mentally retarded and nonretarded children: II. Recognition by nonretarded adults with varying experience with mental retardation.

The influence of experience with mental retardation on nonretarded adults' ability to recognize facial expressions of emotion by young retarded children was examined. Four emotions were studied: happiness, anger, sadness, and neutrality (absence of affect). Slides of retarded and nonretarded children were presented to three groups: adults without experience in mental retardation, parents of retarded children, and teachers of the retarded stimulus children. Inexperienced adults identified fewer expressions of retarded children than did parents who, in turn, identified fewer expressions than did teachers. Teachers recognized expressions of retarded children best, inexperienced adults recognized expressions of nonretarded children best, and parents recognized expressions equally well in both retarded and nonretarded children. Happiness was recognized best in all children by all participants.