Daily Function

Emotion and face processing impacts daily function dramatically. Both of these components are key in every person to person interaction. Each time a social interaction occurs verbal gestures, eye contact, non verbal gestures, prediction of emotion and more exist in a transaction. According to the Encyclopedia of Childhood and Adolescense, social referencing is the first step to be able to recognize emotions. Social referencing is built upon in order to develop positive, mature social skills.

In many of the child's occupations including playmate, friend, sibiling, son/daughter, student, grandchild, and employee it is imperative to process facial information and emotions in order to build the relatationship. If a child has continual negative social interactions due to impairments with face processing and emotion, it can be a cyclic event. Failed attempts as a child could lead to low self-esteem, poor confidence, and uneasiness as a teenager and an adult. A child has more considerations and assistance than a teenager or adult has available. However, the demands are greater in high school, college, and with employement. (Miller-Kuhaneck) Specifically, an employee who does not make eye contact with his/her superior could be viewed as disrespectful and treated negatively. The severity of ignorning this domain in childhood impairs the overall success in adulthood.