Advisory Committee Chair
Ingrid M Hopkins
Advisory Committee Members
Fred Biasini
Olivio Clay
Kristi Guest
Scott Snyder
Document Type
Dissertation
Date of Award
2012
Degree Name by School
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) College of Arts and Sciences
Abstract
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. FaceSayTM, a computer-based intervention teaches skills such as eye gaze and face processing with a goal of improving face and emotion recognition. FaceSayTM 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 FaceSayTM 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 FaceSayTM 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 FaceSayTM showed a greater ability to draw human faces.
Recommended Citation
Perez, Trista, "Evaluating The Efficacy Of Computer Social Skills Game In Improving The Social-Emotional Development Of Head Start Children" (2012). All ETDs from UAB. 2710.
https://digitalcommons.library.uab.edu/etd-collection/2710