Vocal emotion recognition and links with externalising and internalising behaviour problems during childhood and adolescence.

Vocal emotional expressions are salient social signals serving adaptive functions in typical child development. Despite recent advances in facial emotion processing, little is known about vocal emotion processing during childhood and adolescence. In this talk I will present empirical evidence from behavioural and Event-Related Potential (ERP) studies on the development of vocal emotion recognition in children. In addition, I will present evidence on links between vocal emotion recognition and externalising and internalising behaviour problems in children and adolescents. These results have implications for programmes aiming to help children read emotions in other successfully and improve children’s socio-emotional competence.