Dr. Stephen Nowicki Jr. and Dr. Marshall Duke, Professors at Emory University, have developed a psychological test to help in the diagnosis and assessment of people with dyssemia. The test is named the Diagnostic Analysis of Nonverbal Accuracy (DANVA). The test helps to determine a child’s ability to identify facial expressions.

The assessment tests receptive (decoding) and expressive (encoding) nonverbal abilities on four sub-scales:

• Facial expressions
• Paralanguage/voices
• Postures
• Gestures

The research findings about DANVA have shown that:

• Expressing and reading emotions are related
• Women are more skilled than men at reading emotions
• Most skills improve with age
• Personality affects skill
• Skills affect relationship success
• Family environment affects skill

The Diagnostic Analysis of Nonverbal Behavior (DANVA2) can be found at: http://www.psychology.emory.edu/clinical/interpersonal/danva.htm

On the site you can try out tests and get results after testing for:
• Adult faces and voices
• Adult faces, voices and postures
• Child faces and voices
• African American faces and voices

Additional information about Dr. Stephen Nowicki Jr. and Dr. Marshall Duke and the DANVA Manual can be found at the website:
http://psychology.emory.edu/clinical/interpersonal/

Suggested Activity

Take one of the available tests on the DANVA2 site and then come back here to reflect on your experience. (Tip: locate the demo password in the text of the page for clicking on one of the tests)