Is it normal for pre-teens to have difficulty in reading emotions?

As explained by the renowned Professor Robert Winston, because of the brain’s ‘rewiring’ during adolescence, the part of their brain that enables teenagers to read facial expressions is one of the areas affected. As a result, younger children are more skilled than the average teen at recognising the emotions on faces, such as happy, sad and angry expressions. They do regain this skill as they mature, but during the peaking periods of adolescence, don’t expect them to know your thoughts just by your facial expressions alone.