| The preschool years are an important time for cognitive and social development. Children from lower socioeconomic backgrounds are often subject to difficulties in social-emotional competence. Head Start programs have a goal of improving social-emotional development of children from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. Social skills interventions teach fundamental social skills. FaceSay™, a computer-based intervention teaches skills such as eye gaze and face processing with a goal of improving face and emotion recognition. FaceSay™ performance was not predictive of post intervention face and emotion recognition. Based on the results, cognitive scores predicted increased face recognition scores post intervention; however, the assignment to FaceSay™ was the greatest predictor when compared to pre intervention scores and cognitive ability. Cognitive scores were the best predictor of emotion recognition, but game assignment was not a significant predictor of emotion recognition. Children playing FaceSay™ did not show a greater ability to draw the human face as compared to children playing the control games. However, children who performed better on FaceSay™ showed a greater ability to draw human faces. |
