T hey say eyes are windows to the soul.

But can emotions be understood only by looking in someone’s eyes? A group of Georgia College & State University Psychology majors attempted to see if that’s true.

This year, students in Dr. Tsu-Ming Chiang’s Social Emotional Research Lab returned to Baldwin County’s Early Learning Center (ELC) to provide emotional coaching for 3- to 5-year-olds. The work is especially important for children who spent much of their early years looking at masked adults during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Students compared the children’s socio-emotional skills to previous years’ data on children who saw entire faces during early development.

“We wanted to make sure kids still understood people's facial expressions,” said senior psychology major Clara Eysel of Columbus. “We wanted to know if the COVID years—with the masks and distancing and separation—affected their ability to tell when someone's upset, happy or mad.”

Initial results show COVID-19 and mask wearing had a negative impact.

Children who regularly saw only the eyes of adults appeared to have lower emotional knowledge. This means they could be at higher risk for social incompetence problems—like depression, social anxiety, trouble relating mind to body, post-traumatic symptoms and obsession-compulsion disorders or social withdrawal issues.

Teachers of this age group reported seeing more troubles with behavioral regulation, attention spans and language skills. Findings were based on teacher assessments, Chiang stressed, not children actually displaying these problems.

“In comparison, children exhibited more internalizing problems during the past year or so,” Chiang said. “Some children from this age group, who grew up during COVID, could have mild forms of these behaviors. These problems can be related to a lack of social skills in people who poorly handle their emotions.”

Chiang has tracked emotional data on Baldwin County’s children for 23 years. It’s important work in an area where a high percentage of kids are raised by low-income, single parents who don’t always have time to help their children build emotional skills.

Teachers don’t often have the time or resources to support children who exhibit emotional issues either. Chiang obtains grants to buy resources for local teachers and coaches them in strategic classroom management.

“You’ve got to be firm but warm with these children and show them you care,” Chiang said. “When emotion is so extreme, a person’s brain shuts down and isn’t processing. You need to find a way to modulate emotions to the point where you can talk with distraught children.”

Dr. Chiang believes it’s vital for psychology students to work with children and families, then apply what they learn to help the local community and carry on as agents-of-change in their careers. She hopes the intervention helps improve emotional knowledge these children lacked during the pandemic.

This semester, nine psychology majors worked twice a week at the ELC. They taught empathy training lessons—using storybooks, video, puppet shows, song, movement and art-n-crafts.

For children, the Georgia College Social Emotional Lab is their “Happy Room.” One little boy loved interacting with college students so much—he cried when it was time to go.

“In the beginning, the kids didn't really know what the Happy Room was yet,” Eysel said. “Now, when we go pick them up from their classrooms, they're so happy and excited.”

Chiang’s Social Emotional Lab is great preparation for Eysel, who wants to work in special education. As co-head teacher, Eysel starts labs by showing children large glossy pictures of expressive faces. Students talk to the children about emotions like happiness, sadness, anger, fear, frustration and surprise.

The head teacher reads a story or shows a video about emotion—stopping to ask lots of questions, like “What’s this person feeling?” “Why does he look scared?” and “How would this make you feel?”

Students work one-on-one with children, listening and sharing tools for dealing with difficult situations. The lessons are scripted, so the children’s classroom teachers can reinforce learning throughout the year.

Eysel has noticed the children’s behavior improve.

“Kids are more comfortable talking about their emotions with each other and us,” she said. “In the beginning, they weren't really speaking up very much. But now, when you ask them a question, they all want to answer. They all want to participate.”

If they feel overwhelmed, experiencing several emotions at once, Eysel tells them, “It's okay to be upset. It's okay to be angry. It's okay to cry but talk to an adult. Let someone know how you’re feeling and someone will help you.”

Senior Carson Beasley of Woodstock, Georgia, is majoring in psychology with a minor in criminal justice. He’s a favorite in the Social Emotional Lab. He plays guitar, and they sing songs like “If
You’re Happy and You Know It” and “Going on a Bear Hunt.”

Beasley wants to be a school counselor. Being in Chiang’s lab for two years, he’s learned a lot about young children, assessment testing and data collection.

When they started observing preschoolers this year—Beasley said some could read emotions on masked faces and some could not. Some couldn’t recall a word for the emotion they were seeing. The most challenging element was distinguishing between sadness, fear and anger.

One boy told him he used to hit when he was angry, but now he knows that’s not okay.

Beasley beams when talking about their ability to learn.

“They’re like sponges,” he said. “From the first lesson that we did, there’s been a huge, huge difference.”