This was an exploratory investigation of the relationship between sensitivity to emotional cues and social functioning in 20 head-injured children and adolescents (median coma 7.5 days) and 20 controls who had sustained other accidental injuries. Median age was 12.8 yr. (range = 5 to 16 years). Sensitivity to fundamental facial expressions and both visual and verbal context cues to emotion was measured. Analysis indicated that head-injured subjects were impaired relative to controls on a global index of emotion interpretation ability. A significant number of head-injured subjects also made errors confusing positive and negative emotions and errors interpreting emotionally toned vignettes. Results of a parent questionnaire indicated that head-injured subjects exhibit less appropriate social behavior than controls. The data showed a strong trend for global ability to interpret emotion to predict social behavior.