L. Provenzi, Elisa Baroffio, Susanna Ligabue
Aug 13, 2020
Citations
2
Influential Citations
16
Citations
Journal
Frontiers in Psychiatry
Abstract
From the very first years of life, children try to make sense and meaning out of the different stimuli they receive from their physical and social caregiving environment. Eric Berne used to refer to this precocious intuition of the surrounding world as a Martian thinking, “the naivest possible frame of mind for observing Earthly happenings” (1). This way of thinking is typical of the psychological Child Ego state called the “Little Professor”, which harbors strategies that the child possesses for solving problems: intuition and prelogical thinking (2). So, with the “little professor” we can refer to the intuitive and creative—rather than logical—thought process that builds on the explorative attitude of young children and on their sensitivity to the surrounding environment (3). Of course, this meaning-making process is far from being a conclusive viewpoint on reality and it is critically affected by direct and indirect messages received from the adult caregivers, especially the parents. As the coronavirus disease of the 2019 (Covid-19) is rapidly spreading worldwide, it’s reasonable to assume that even the children’s “Little Professor” is trying to develop a naïve theory of what is happening in the external world by incorporating different information sources. These may include the verbal messages (e.g., information, explanations) and the emotional expressions of their parents as well as delivered by the media and other adults. Notably, even when language comprehension is not fully developed, children are highly sensitive to the prosodic elements of human communications, including adults’ gesture and voice tone (4). For this reason, the parental scaffolding of meaning-making processes is crucial to help children cope with such unexpected and frightening events, disentangling unclear messages and making order within the large amount of potentially confusing information they receive about the Covid-19 epidemic (5). Indeed, children are now surrounded by adults wearing masks, talking to each other about the infection and they can perceive alarm and distress by looking and listening to them. They are supposed to change their habits: to respect strict hygiene standards and to remain at home with a dramatic reduction of physical social exchanges with peers. Additionally, they may have faced for the first time the loss of a significant person in their family. At the present moment, it is not easy for most parents to find verified and reliable information on the nature of this coronavirus as well as on the healthcare risks for themselves and their children (6). Scientists themselves are trying to understand the nature of the virus and they do not have conclusive estimations on the health-related risk as well as on the time course of the emergency (7).