We primal hard-wiring that
makes our eyes unconsciously look at interesting things, especially faces, and
look away from unpleasant things. So much of how children can learn, and be
emotionally healthy about masks is how the adults and other children in their
lives view masks and those who wear them. Children can be quick to adapt and
read body language without mouth cues as long as those around them see people
wearing them as normal. But if they see those wearing masks as scary, they will
associate them with danger rather than safety.
Eye Scanning—We scan faces according
to a systematic pattern. The pattern consists of a series of triangles that
crisscross the eyes and then travel down to the mouth. During an initial
interpretation, we spend 75 percent of the time exploring the triangle of the
eyes and mouth, 10 percent on the forehead and hair, and 5 percent on the chin,
with the remaining 10 percent devoted to other features. The average scanning
time is around 3 seconds.
One of the main stress points adults have when wearing masks is they feel they can see or show a smile to show they are friendly. The smile is such an important signal of friendliness that it can be recognized from a football field away. Smiling is a "harmless" cue that makes you look less threatening. Smiling makes people feel safe as you approach or lets them know it's safe to approach you because you are smiling. But many of the facial cues that indicate a "real" smile occurs above the mask.
We have learned to read those
cues and simply showing children how to read them and be confident in reading a
true smile can help children adapt and be more comfortable wearing a mask in
the classroom. (We can fake a smile with the mouth, and you can recognize a real
smile from just the eyes.
