Pre-Conference Workshop_Baby FACS: Facial Action Coding System for Infants and Young Children

Our goal in this workshop is to provide a detailed introduction to Baby FACS and its use in infancy research. Baby FACS is an objective, anatomically based coding system adapted for infant facial morphology from the adult FACS (Ekman, Friesen, & Hager, 2002). Drs. Oster and Dondi will review the theoretical and methodological foundations of Baby FACS and its unique advantages for addressing questions about infant sensory, perceptual, and cognitive processes, engagement in social interaction, emotional expression, and emotion regulation. Because Baby FACS coding takes variations in facial morphology into account, it is uniquely suited to studying developmental changes and individual and cultural differences in facial expression in typically developing full-term and preterm infants, fetuses in utero, and infants with facial anomalies. Baby FACS modifications of the adult FACS are based on infant-adult differences in facial morphology and the appearance changes produced by facial muscle actions. Photos and videos will illustrate discrete facial muscle Action Units (AUs), complex AU configurations, and the temporal dynamics of distinctive infant expressions, including variants and intensities of positive and negative affect, focused attention, states of alertness, and stereotyped facial behaviors such as yawns and rooting. Attendees will try to mimic the infants facial muscle actions and observe each other’s faces. The presenters will discuss naturalistic and experimental research paradigms for studying infant facial expressions and infant-caregiver interaction. Participants will have a chance to ask questions about Baby FACS training and using Baby FACS in their own studies. Training in the adult FACS is not required for this workshop.