Understanding others’ facial expressions has an important role in daily emotional communication. To date, many studies, including developmental studies, have focused on emotions by using facial expressions as the stimuli. However, very few reviews have been conducted on understanding others’ facial expressions, including studies on adults, children, and infants. In this study, the ability to understand others’ facial expressions are reviewed. First, the author identified four abilities that are required for understanding others’ facial expressions. Second, studies on adults, children, and infants are reviewed with respect to each of the four abilities required for improving the understanding of others’ facial expressions. Finally, the author proposes the future direction for the study of the development of understanding others’ facial expressions.
