Social Anxiety

Children suffering from extreme social anxiety are trapped in a nightmare of misinterpreted facial expressions: They confuse angry faces with sad ones, a new study shows. “If you misread facial expressions, you’re in trouble, no matter what other social skills you have,” says Emory psychologist Steve Nowicki, a clinical researcher who developed the tests used in the study. “It can make life very difficult, because other people’s faces are like a prism through which we look at the world.” Nowicki coined the term "dyssemia," meaning the inability to process signs. They also developed the Diagnostic Analysis of Nonverbal Accuracy (DANVA) to assess subtle cues to emotional expressions, including visual signals and tone and cadence of voice. DANVA is now widely used by researchers in studies of everything from behavioral disorders to autism spectrum conditions. “..nonverbal communication can be taught. It's a skill, not something mysterious." They have found that in a range of children with behavioral disorders, including high-functioning autism, direct teaching can improve their non-verbal communication [link].