Developmental characteristics of non-verbal behavior in children with unique faces during interpersonal communication

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OBJECTIVE : This study examined the characteristics of facial behavior presented by children with craniofacial conditions during interpersonal communication. METHODS : Ninety -four children with cleft lip and/or palate participated in this study. Their ages ranged from 5 to 15 years. In addition, 50 children, without craniofacial conditions participated as a control group. During the interviews, the subjects were videotaped from the front side by two cameras which were set up in front of an interviewer. Two raters evaluated (1) gaze aversion., (2) shape of nose, (3) shape of lips on the 1- 4 Likert scale (1-natural, 2- slightly unnatural, 3- considerably unnatural, 4-extremely unnatural). RESULTS : A one-way ANOVA analysis was conducted on the scores of unnaturalness on each scale by each rater. A main effect of groups was significant at each scale. Furthermore, significant positive correlations were found among those scales performed by a Spearman correlation analysis. CONCLUSIONS : The results of this study showed that gaze aversion in children with craniofacial conditions was rated relatively unnatural compared to the control group. Such facial behavior was assumed to be related to the degree of the craniofacial conditions. There is a possibility that the unnatural and frequent gaze aversion in the patients may give others the impression of less eagerness, reduced speaking effort, and poor active listening during interpersonal communication.