Thread by @Loretta_Torrago

Judith Danovitch's researches how preschool & elementary school kids evaluate & think about information. In this article, she evaluates claims of "mask harms" and the impiactions, for cognitive development, of not seeing mouths, smiles & frowns.🧵
nytimes.com/2021/08/18/opi…

Daovitch admits that, though there is little data on masks per se, there is evidence from head coverings. “Children in cultures where caregivers & educators wear head coverings that obscure their mouths & noses develop skills just as children in other cultures do.”

What’s more, she adds, blind people still learn to speak, read and socialize.

Danovitch points out that “looking at eyes is at least as important as looking at mouths" given that by age 2, typical kids spend 2x as much time on eyes than on mouths.

In fact, Danovitch points out, children who infer thoughts and emotions based on eyes alone, exhibit greater emotional intelligence.

All this should really make us wonder why the anti-maskers aren’t at least as concerned, if not more concerned, with sunglasses and hairstyles that hide the eyes, than they are with masks. But I digress.

Masks, Danovitch says, also are opportunities to develop skills that rely on “ prosody, gesture & context” as well as “ tone of voice or a teacher’s body language”.

In addition, in keeping a mask on and in place, kids can develop the kind of self-control that helps at “achieving their long-term goals, solving problems and handling stressful situations.”

Danovitch adds that masks are practice at caring for the community and lessons in transmission that give children opportunities to feel good about “sacrifices on behalf of others in need”.

Surprising no one whose been paying attention, how children feel about masks is largely a reflection of how their parents feel about masks.

Which makes one wonder what the "mask harm" parents are saying to their kids and why masks can’t be like other hardships kids inevitably face where we often teach them to turn adversity to advantage.

At the very least Danovitch provides a helpful roadmap for parents interested in redirecting potential mask complaints to other skills to encourage: like those of emotional intelligence and personal growth.