Cerebral Palsy and Emotional Development

Children with cerebral palsy may experience delays in emotional development as well as physical development. Recent research took a closer look at emotional knowledge in children with cerebral palsy. The researchers wanted to determine if differences were present in emotion knowledge between children with cerebral and their typically developing peers, and examine its associations with affective regulation and behavioral psychopathology.

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Study on Cerebral Palsy and Emotional Development and Knowledge

The study participants included 36 children with cerebral palsy and 45 typically developing peers. Each child completed the Emotion Matching Task to determine emotion knowledge. The parents of the children completed the Emotion Regulation Checklist and Child Behavior Checklist to evaluate emotional regulation and psychopathological behaviors.

Following data analysis the results on cerebral palsy and emotional development indicated the following:

children with cerebral palsy made more mistakes in emotion knowledge tasks, had lower emotional regulation and higher behavioral problems than their typically developing peers.
emotion knowledge showed a positive correlation with emotional regulation and a negative correlation with behavioral problems which in turn predicted psychopathological behaviors.

The researchers concluded that more focus and attention on emotion knowledge could improve social and behavioral functioning in children with cerebral palsy.

Reference

Belmonte-Darraz, S., Montoro, C. I., Andrade, N. C., Montoya, P., & Riquelme, I. (2020). Alteration of Emotion Knowledge and Its Relationship with Emotion Regulation and Psychopathological Behavior in Children with Cerebral Palsy. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 1-11.