Let’s Talk About How They Feel: Language, and Emotion Understanding in Children With Epilepsy

• In Event: Poster Session 06
  In Poster Session: PS 06 Topic - Social Cognition

Abstract

Childhood epilepsy is associated with language problems (Caplan et al., 2009) and poor social problem solving (Bailey & ImBolter, 2019a). Recent research suggests that children with epilepsy demonstrate poor performance on tasks measuring theory of mind (ToM) or the understanding of mental perspectives (Bailey & Im-Bolter, 2019b; Lunn et al., 2015). The relation between language and ToM in typically developing populations is well-established (Im-Bolter et al., 2016); however, the majority of this research focuses on the cognitive aspect (i.e., beliefs and thoughts) of ToM as opposed to the affective aspect (i.e., emotional states). Recent research indicates that language is associated with affective ToM (Meinhardt-Injac et al., 2020), which we would expect since language has been shown to be important for emotion understanding (Streubal, 2020). There is also evidence that ToM is predictive of emotion understanding in a social context (Sarmento-Henrique et al., 2020), but this is based on measures of cognitive ToM. This makes it difficult to determine whether cognitive ToM, affective ToM, or both are important for this skill.
No research, that we are aware of, has considered the relations between language, affective ToM, and emotional understanding in children with epilepsy. Yet, given the importance of language to social cognitive processes, such as ToM and emotion understanding, it is reasonable to propose that the social difficulties associated with childhood epilepsy could be attributed, in part, to their language problems. We predict that: 1) children with epilepsy will show worse language, affective ToM, and emotion understanding during social problem solving and 2) language will be associated with both affective ToM and emotion understanding during social problem solving.
The present study includes two groups of children between the ages of 6 and 12, with (EP: n = 8; Mage= 9.86 years, SD = 2.35) and without epilepsy (TD: n = 15; Mage= 9.92 years, SD = 2.30), who were part of a larger project examining language and social cognition. Children were given measures of non-verbal IQ, language, affective ToM, and emotion understanding during social problem solving. We found that: 1) the EP group showed worse performance compared to the TD group on measures of language, affective ToM, and emotion understanding during social problem solving; and 2) language was associated with both affective ToM and emotion understanding during social problem solving.
Our results provide evidence that language is an important predictor of affective ToM and emotion understanding during social problem solving. This study is the first to consider these processes in children with epilepsy and highlights a critical need for future research that investigates these processes in this population. Understanding these processes and their relation to the social difficulties that children with epilepsy face is needed to develop effective treatments for improved social communication and social functioning. Our results suggest that specifically targeting the language abilities of children with epilepsy for intervention may lead to improved functioning in affective ToM and social problem solving, which could assist with their social communication.

Authors

• Katharine M Bailey, University of Alberta
  Presenting Author

• Jonathan Whitsitt, Trent University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Nancie Im-Bolter, Trent University
  Non-Presenting Author