That self portrait story is so sad! Out of the mouth’s of babes …
I’m so thankful my children are grown!
5 Likes
@JBStillFlying - interesting reads, thanks for the links. (Though Bari Weiss is currently persona non grata for me - see my post in the Bryn Mawr/Hillsdale thread. 
) I think parental frustration and anger over COVID schooling is definitely real, I’m just not sure how widespread it is and how much it’s translating into concrete actions in real life, be it defying mask orders or running for Congress.
There are a lot of studies out there reporting this. Most European countries never masked kids. Why? No science in it, It was detrimental to development of kids and had no effect on spread of covid. Great Britain is done.
Take that for what you will. At some point you need to decide for yourself what you want for your kids and who to believe.
4 Likes
That is not true. In fact, most of them did have mask requirements in school, at least sporadically, and were encouraged to do so by the WHO.
3 Likes
None of the European countries masked children under 6 years. The Scandinavian countrues, Austria and Switzerland did not mask those under 12.
1 Like
Thank you for adding proof to my point. There are 44 countries in Europe.
Most here would be interested on the handful of western European countries with more similarities to our experience and scientific protocols. Hence Scandanavia, France, Germany, UK, Switzerland , Austria. Perhaps Italy, Spain and Portugal. Bulgaria was never a big draw ( tho I like Sofia personally)
I haven’t seen any completed studies on how mask wearing affects children in schools, but this particular research that I have linked saw that Face masks disrupted holistic processing and face perception in school aged kids and noted that future research should explore the social and psychological ramifications of wearing masks on children’s performance. What I find slightly disturbing is that I have seen several articles that quote experts (generally developmental psychologists) who worry about some of the developmental challenges that may be caused by younger children not being able to see and decode social cues. There is plenty of evidence that has shown that masks have helped protect people from catching Covid-19 during the pandemic, but not much in the way of completed research on how children are affected from wearing masks (at least from what I have seen).
https://cognitiveresearchjournal.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s41235-022-00360-2
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20211025-how-face-masks-affect-young-children
6 Likes
It’ll likely translate into votes one way or the other. Fortunately, that’s how most of these debates are resolved. Covid-schooling and maybe one or two other specific issues (with their own neatly-drawn lines) have turned “education” into an area of particular interest this election year.
3 Likes
There are some embedded in this article:
Interesting points:
"Seeing isn’t a prerequisite for learning to speak, Peter J. Smith, associate professor of developmental and behavioral pediatrics at the University of Chicago Medicine, pointed out. “For instance, children who have visual impairments don’t have to be socially delayed or language delayed, and they can’t see mouths or things like that because they have a visual impairment.”
The argument for school masking affecting children’s language development is particularly puzzling, because the majority of language development usually happens before the age of two, and masks are not recommended for children under that age. Even among young kids at preschools and daycares, who regularly interact with masked adults, no delays have been discovered.
“Babies and young children study faces intently, that’s true,” Dr. Diane Paul, director of clinical issues in speech-language pathology at the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, told me. “But children can tune in to other cues when an adult’s mouth isn’t visible.” One study shows that 2-year-olds can still recognize words through masks. Another study from before the pandemic found that children aged 3 to 8 have no trouble identifying expressions through masks. Perhaps most fascinating of all, a study on preschoolers found that they made more complex speech sounds when wearing masks."
Full disclaimer, my kids are unmasked, but teenagers. If they were preschoolers, for example, I would still have concerns that there might be developmental delays with prolonged masking.
1 Like
Sorry, I did not mean to start a huge debate over kids wearing masks!
But I can’t help feel like had the country did everything they could to “flatten the curve”, worn masks, distanced, etc, wearing masks would have been temporary - we would not still be wearing them today.
Again, I don’t have little ones, nor do my 80-something parents live with me. But I don’t know how I would have handled that situation.
I sympathize with everyone going through this with "extra circumstances " (for lack of a better words).
3 Likes
Yes. I think it’s time to move on from this subject. Everyone has made their positions clear.
2 Likes
On another note, the FDA is meeting next week re vaccines for under 5s. You can go to their website to make your feelings known, and read others’ comments.
Northeastern and BU were among the first colleges to announce a vaccine mandate last Spring.
I ran into an interesting family- submitted obit in today’s paper - the man, who was “66 years old and in vigorous good health,” died suddenly after contracting a “catastrophic viral illness.” I just thought that was an different way to present it. He was a fourth generation cattleman.
I agree. Add in the fact that if everyone had gotten vaccinated, it would be a minor annoyance now.
Fine. Unvax’d people will eventually get Covid. They’ve chosen to risk the consequences. There is literally nothing more the rest of us can do. We have complied, we have begged, we have tried reason. So be it. I just will breathe a sigh of relief when my under-5 grandkids can get vaccinated. And I’ll take any and all boosters recommended.
9 Likes