{"id":8188,"date":"2020-07-27T15:22:11","date_gmt":"2020-07-27T05:22:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/?p=8188"},"modified":"2020-07-27T17:00:04","modified_gmt":"2020-07-27T07:00:04","slug":"hes-been-wearing-a-mask-for-30-years-this-is-what-he-wants-you-to-know","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/hes-been-wearing-a-mask-for-30-years-this-is-what-he-wants-you-to-know\/","title":{"rendered":"He’s been wearing a mask for 30 years. This is what he wants you to know"},"content":{"rendered":"

Words: Sophie Aubrey, The Age<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"
The Royal Children’s Hospital general paediatrician A\/Prof Daryl Efron and son Luca. Daryl has been wearing masks as part of his job for 30 years.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Photography: Simon Schluter, The Age<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

He’s been wearing a mask for 30 years. This is what he wants you to know.<\/strong><\/p>\n

How do you express a smile when half of your face is hidden?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a question confronting many Melburnians living in an unfamiliar new masked reality, where the go-to gesture for putting one another at ease suddenly feels so obstructed.<\/p>\n

Royal Children\u2019s Hospital general paediatrician Daryl Efron has been wearing masks as part of his job for 30 years and more intensively during the pandemic. The associate professor admits that masks complicate a critical element of communication \u2013 \u201cwe use a warm, open, relaxed face to show somebody we are calm and attentive\u201d \u2013 but he says they don\u2019t hinder as much facial expression as you might think.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t need the mouth to see a smile. Everyone can see smiling eyes,\u201d Efron says. \u201cYou just need to make sure your smile is a big smile so your eyes light up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed, not all smiles are equal. There is the social smile \u2013 which a mask conceals \u2013 and there is the genuine smile, sometimes referred to as the \u201cDuchenne\u201d smile.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlmost everyone can perform a social smile deliberately. For instance, to offer a polite greeting,\u201d says Dr Amy Dawel, a cognitive and clinical psychologist at ANU.<\/p>\n

\u201cDuchenne smiles involve the same mouth action as social smiles, but also include activation of the outer part of the muscle that circles the eye, creating crow’s feet at the corners of the eyes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Efron says people can still communicate very effectively while wearing a mask, it just requires a bit more thought.<\/p>\n

\u201cKids in a hospital setting are prone to being a bit scared, sometimes very scared, and people wearing masks can add an extra layer of anxiety for kids, so we need to be very thoughtful doing everything we can to put kids at ease,\u201d Efron says.<\/p>\n

He suggests being more deliberate \u2013 even extravagant \u2013 with facial expressions, body language and gestures. For example, he says slightly raising your eyebrows conveys interest. As does nodding and head tilting when listening.<\/p>\n

You have to be more conscious of common courtesies because normally we convey so much with a simple smile.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Associate Professor Daryl Efron, Royal Children’s Hospital general paediatrician<\/strong><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n

\u201cHow you hold your head and body, your gestures with your hands and arms, that\u2019s very important,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Efron also recommends being more conscious about speaking clearly, loudly and with a friendly voice. Attentive eye contact and laughter are helpful too.<\/p>\n

As masks go community-wide, Efron says he has found himself nodding more in public where usually there would have been an exchange of teeth.<\/p>\n

\u201cLike when you\u2019re at the checkout of the supermarket, you have to be more conscious of common courtesies because normally we convey so much with a simple smile,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom the start of this pandemic we\u2019ve been talking about kindness and now we\u2019re at a level where we need to be more thoughtful with our communication.\u201d<\/p>\n

With so much anxiety around us, Dawel says it is critical we still find ways to connect positively with others.<\/p>\n

\u201cEye contact is important for communicating empathy and understanding and warmth,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou should still smile when you wave or greet people while wearing a mask. There is another potential benefit too. We know that smiling makes the smiler feel better too.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dawel encourages people to nod, wave or say hello to passersby. And when listening to someone speak, note how their voice sounds.<\/p>\n

\u201cVocal tone can sometimes give away more about how a person feels than their face does,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

When meeting someone while masked, Dawel says you can minimise awkwardness by simply acknowledging how odd the situation is.<\/p>\n

To make masks feel less confronting, Monash University philosopher of etiquette Dr Elizabeth Coleman believes it helps to liken them to sunglasses.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe think nothing of somebody wearing sunglasses which essentially masks the eyes and one of the most expressive parts of the face,\u201d Coleman says. \u201cWe read a lot of joy or sadness or laughter from the eyes.\u201d<\/p>\n

So probably avoid pairing a face mask with sunglasses, Coleman says. She adds that people just need to remember to stay engaged when communicating.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are a whole lot of gestures we have … such as tracking people with your eyes, paying attention, it\u2019s what is going to be important in these contexts.\u201d<\/p>\n

And if you’re still feeling unsure, spend some time in front of the mirror with a mask on. Dawel says this can help you get a sense of how you came across.<\/p>\n

\u201cTry smiling. Nod your head. Move your eyebrows around. Try different gestures. Are you communicating what you want others to see?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How do you express a smile when half of your face is hidden? It\u2019s a question confronting many Melburnians living in an unfamiliar new masked reality, where the go-to gesture for putting one another at ease suddenly feels so obstructed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":195,"featured_media":8189,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8971,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-in-the-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/195"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8188"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8188\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8192,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8188\/revisions\/8192"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}