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Key points
- Mirror neurons fire in response to a face, prompting us to mirror whatever expression is displayed on the faces we observe.
- Reading lips helps young children to learn and understand language.
- Social development for children includes learning to read and send social signals, including reading facial expressions.
This post is part 1 of a two-part series.
As a clinical psychologist and mother, I’m deeply concerned about masking children. Although I’m speaking from a psychology perspective rather than an infectious disease perspective, it may be a helpful backdrop to know that The New York Times reports that children have a greater risk from car rides than from COVID-19.
There are several domains where I’m concerned we’re inadvertently tampering with healthy development by masking children for multiple hours on a daily basis. Obviously, each person and situation are different. As we consider what’s best for our children, our communities, and ourselves, I have provided some information that might be helpful to put the social factors of masking children into perspective. Naturally, there is a lot to consider with something as important as our children’s well-being, so I will share the information in two parts to spare my readers from data overload!
1. Mirror Neurons
We all have “mirror neurons” in our brains. These fascinating neurons fire in response to a face, and their response is (you guessed it) to mirror whatever expression is displayed on the faces we observe. For example, if I were feeling very happy and suddenly noticed my office mate across the room wearing a facial expression of sadness, my mirror neurons would respond to mirror the sadness—I wouldn’t begin to feel sad myself, but my brain would physically register the presence of my office mate’s sadness.
As you can see, mirror neurons are part of the neurological underpinning of empathy. Facial expressions, of course, showcase the mouth and nose—smiles, grimaces, pouts, even a slight wrinkling of the nose can communicate anything from happiness to sadness to disgust, or anywhere in between. Even more subtle facial gestures like the tensing of a jaw or the pursing of the lips can signal more than we consciously realize we’re observing—but our mirror neurons are silently registering these signals and then quietly shaping our perceptions of, as well as our social responses to, the people around us. Yes, eyes communicate as well, but the visibility of the mouth has been demonstrated as a primary player for facial expressions and mirror neurons; as well as a visual aid for learning and understanding speech.
To disrupt the mirror neuron process in adults presents its own challenges to social connection, though at least adults have sophisticated social and verbal skills to “fill in the [giant] blank” that is created by literally masking the mouth and nose. I fear that masking children, whose social skills are less developed, could deprive them of an important and basic social connection device that Mother Nature so elegantly affords us: the face.
2. Social Cognition and Language
It’s no surprise that social development for children includes learning to read and send social signals, including reading facial expressions. We'll also include things like “reading lips” here as well, since reading lips helps young children tremendously to learn and understand language.
Social skills can be as basic as learning to recognize a smile as a friendly greeting and to offer one in return when you approach a group or learning to not smile broadly when someone is wearing a sad expression telling a story about how their favorite toy got dumped in the garbage (it may be hard to believe for readers without experience with children, but the “toy in the garbage” story can actually sound quite funny to 4-year-old ears).
Social cognition skill acquisition also includes things like learning the power of how cracking a slightly campy, sly, or nervous smile in a tense moment can help to introduce a touch of levity and decrease anxiety—for example, my 5-year-old loves this type of humor in life's "uh-oh" moments, like when he suddenly can’t find his special show-and-tell item anywhere at the exact “showtime” moment in class, and his (totally unmasked because I live in Florida) class will often respond to his sheepish smile with giggles that put him and themselves at ease.
The same is true for other “faux distress” responses like an exaggerated sense of surprise. For example, his teacher may form her mouth into an “O” shape and perhaps even raise a hand to cover her mouth in silly, pretend shock to convey a light “no-no” if something slightly inappropriate happens such a child letting out a loud and deliberate belch during storytime (ah, preschoolers!). The examples above are basic, but social cognition skills can be nuanced as well.
For example, if a 12-year-old child (let’s call her Morgan) sees a small group of friends clustered together across the playground or classroom with relaxed facial expressions, perhaps with many of them simultaneously showing animated lips or laughing mouths, then Morgan can see that a lively conversation is likely unfolding. She might feel drawn to approach the group casually as she mentally prepares to join the fun.
Conversely, if Morgan sees several friends clustered together with their mouths paused in somber expressions while one child is speaking with their lips moving only subtly, as if speaking quietly or slowly, then Morgan might approach more tentatively or perhaps even realize that this might not be the best time to approach the group at all.
This type of social awareness not only requires real-time ability to see facial expressions in order to facilitate awareness in the first place, but it also requires a history of past experiences viewing facial expressions to create the social cognition skills necessary to recognize, process, and respond to this situation in a socially appropriate manner.
Moreover, the scene above describes what Morgan might be able to see and infer from unmasked faces before she is even close enough to hear a word of what the children are actually saying— masks obviously muffle our voices and prevent us from seeing the words that lips are speaking.
This means the masks could also impede Morgan’s ability to successfully gauge the conversation as she approaches and then decide whether to give them space or join the group, based on her ability to pick up the vocal tone and content of the chatter. For example, are the girls talking about a favorite teacher where Morgan can chime in easily, or are they discussing something sensitive about what happened to them earlier in the day when Morgan wasn’t around?
If Morgan approaches the group and as she draws closer she sees that it appears to be a “private conversation” where joining might seem intrusive, the experience can go so much better for her if she’s able to detect this sooner rather than later, without masks literally masking much of the information she needs to read a group dynamic—plus, an absence of masks will allow a friend in the cluster who happens to see Morgan cease her approach can still make brief eye contact and throw her a small smile, perhaps even mouthing the words “let’s talk later!” as Morgan reads the situation and notices her friend in the group.
These small, subtle moments of social interaction are pivotal in social cognition, as well as in the sense of well-being we get from the social support afforded from well-informed social interactions.
While mirror neurons help us to register certain parts of facial–emotional information, social cognition helps us understand how to navigate this awareness interpersonally. Certainly, there are other factors that could guide Morgan, such as general body language, if her classmates were masked—but as a parent and a psychologist, I can tell you that getting kids to really read and understand social scenes even with the bright beacon of facial–emotional information can be a challenge. Why make it even harder on them, unless absolutely necessary?
