De Klerk, Hester MagdalenaDada, ShakilaAlant, Erna2014-08-062014-08-062014-11De Klerk, HM, Dada, S & Alant, E 2014, 'Children's identification of graphic symbols representing four basic emotions :comparison of Afrikaans-speaking and Sepedi-speaking children', Journal of Communication Disorders, vol. 52, no. 1, pp. 1-15.0021-9924 (print)1873-7994 (online)10.1016/j.jcomdis.2014.05.006http://hdl.handle.net/2263/41085PURPOSE : Speech language pathologists recommend graphic symbols for AAC users to facilitate communication, including labelling and expressing emotions. The purpose of the current study was to describe and compare how 5- to 6-year-old Afrikaans- and Sepedi-speaking children identify and choose graphic symbols to depict four basic emotions, specifically happy, sad, afraid, and angry. METHOD : Ninety participants were asked to select the graphic symbol from a 16-matrix communication overlay that would represent the emotion in response to 24 vignettes. RESULTS : The results of the t-tests indicated that the differences between the two groups‟ selection of target symbols to represent the four emotions are statistically significant. CONCLUSIONS : The results of the study indicate that children from different language groups may not perceive graphic symbols in the same way. The Afrikaans-speaking participants more often chose target symbols to represent target basic emotions than did the Sepedi-speaking participants. The most preferred symbols per emotion were identified and these different symbols were analysed in terms of facial features that distinguish them.en© 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Notice : this is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Journal of Communication Disorders. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Journal of Communication Disorders, vol. 52, no. 1, pp. 1-15, 2014. doi : 10.1016/j.jcomdis.2014.05.006.Basic emotionsGraphic symbolsNon-target symbolsPreferred symbolsTarget symbolsPicture communication symbols (PCS)Postprint Article