The American--Speech-Language-Hearing Association and The American Association of Pediatrics both say there is no reason to believe children's language or speech skills be negatively impacted by masks. 🧵
h/t @stricken103 healthychildren.org/English/health…
"....there is no known evidence that use of face masks interferes with speech and language development or social communication. Plus, children can still get plenty of face time at home with mask-free family members. "
".... there are no known studies that use of a face mask negatively impacts a child's speech and language development."
"And consider this: visually impaired children develop speech and language skills at the same rate as their peers."
".... families should know that speech/language therapy services are still occurring—and children are still making significant progress—at this time, even if an speech-language pathologist is wearing a mask."
"When it comes to use of face masks, the bottom line is safety first! Masks reduce transmission of COVID-19 and can make in-person schooling possible during the pandemic. Luckily, your child's speech and language skills can continue to grow."
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"After 2 years, growing calls to take masks off come from me, some other moms I found and a pediatrician. But most scientists I asked think masks are no big deal"
So why did this pointless article get published? 🧵npr.org/2022/01/28/107…
It should tell you something that Kerry Dingle, who the opening 5 paragraphs of this article are devoted to, feels the need to say that, though she thinks masks should be optional, she is not “anti-vax” or “psychotic.”
Having gotten that out of the way, Dingle quickly moves on to bemoan the “burdening” of little kids with "protecting other people”; namely, "high-risk people."
One 'mo time: Covid is not like seasonal influenza.
* Covid is more transmissible than flu. (NPIs "obliterated" flu but not Covid.
* Covid is more deadly than flu.
* We can care about both.
The myth of "mask harms" rests on assuming kids need to see entire faces to accurately recognize emotions. In fact, accuracy is sometimes better with masks. In her Substack, @ProfEmilyOster, guru of cost-benefit analysis, ignores mask's benefits & overstates its costs. 🧵
Oster begins by outlining the role facial expressions have in “conveying emotions.”
She then considers whether masks impede the reading of facial expression of whether “seeing half a face is almost as good as a whole face.”
In her latest Substack, @ProfEmilyOster contemplates Covid’s risk to kids under 5 where she carries on her well-established traditions of ableism and a self-centered approach to public health. 🧵 emilyoster.substack.com/p/covid-risks-…
Predictably, Oster begins by bemoaning the sad state of affairs for parents (her) who need to “dispense” with children “to an outside location” (her phrasing, not mine). Quarantines, Oster tells us are “untenable”. Okay, so are pandemics but here we are. antoniobuehler.medium.com/the-emily-oste…
Oster then moves to addressing a problem she just invented: the exclusion of kids from the world.
1. This is my Holiday gift; I’m telling my Long Covid story so maybe you won’t ever have one.
Long Covid is like stopping on a road trip. You get snacks and head back to your car. Except your car isn’t there anymore. There’s a different one in your spot but it’s the only one.
2. You look around because maybe there’s someone who knows something but it's dark & empty as far as you can see. Who would you ask anyway? Miles from home, there’s nothing but you and this car. You get in; what else is there?
3. But the dashboard has controls you’ve never seen before. You’re not sure how anything works. The windshield wipers come on as a bright sun lifts overhead. It gets dark but there are no headlights; sparks shoot from the front of the car. That’s all the light you get.