Suddenly, two years after the outbreak of the Corona epidemic, concerns were raised about the impact of masks on the processes of language development, emotional and social communication in children.
In the past weeks, calls in the United States to stop imposing masks in schools have multiplied, including calls made by health authorities.
Scientific studies have shown that masks have an effect on children’s ability to recognize faces and perceive emotions.
As with adults, masks can interfere with children’s verbal communication, but experts disagree about the long-term effects of masks on children’s development.
Language learning process is affected
The first concern relates to the process of learning the language that takes place in the early years of the child Children learn to speak through social interactions, They look specifically at adults’ mouths to analyze different syllables.
However, this method is not currently available, which raises the hypothesis of damage to the language learning process as a result of gags.
“It’s true that the process of learning to speak requires looking at faces, but it’s not just that,” Diane Paul of the American Society of Speech Therapy told AFP.
Children wearing masks in a school in El Salvador
Sounds, movements and eyes help babies learn to speak. Paul indicated that children with visual impairments learn to speak well, and that masks are not permanently placed, as they are removed indoors, for example.
The specialist confirmed, “There is no current study that proves the long-term effect of interactions between young children and adults who wear masks on the development of the pronunciation process,” adding that “there are studies that show that children can rely on other communication signals.”
A study conducted in 2021 also showed that children were able to identify words with or without a mask. But another study conducted in France indicates that masks can interfere with the process of learning to read in children with learning difficulties.
Research studies on this topic are still few. But Paul saw no need to panic about this.
For its part, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the most important US federal health agency, stated that “the limited data available do not provide clear evidence that masks harm the emotional and language development of children.”
And this American health authority recommends putting a muzzle from the age of two years, while the World Health Organization Recommended starting from the age of five years.
The effect of the muzzle on social ties
The approach to the subject varies among psychiatrists. Manfred Spitzer, a cognitive neuroscientist at the German University of Ulm, considered that “the emotional aspect is more important,” noting that seeing a smile is the first thing that is missed when putting on a mask.
“In the educational context, there are many implicit exchanges between teachers and children,” he told AFP. “If this communication is changed, the education process will fail.”
Two girls wearing masks in a German school
Concerns also relate to the ability to create social connections. A large number of studies have shown that masks increase the difficulty of recognizing faces and perceiving emotions in all people, including children, and the process can be more difficult for them. Conclusions about the consequences of this differ.
A study of 7- to 13-year-olds published in the journal PLOS One confirmed that emotions (such as fear, sadness, and anger) were identified less accurately when wearing a mask. Similar results were obtained when the subjects wore sunglasses.
The study considered that there is a small possibility that social interactions in children will be significantly affected by wearing masks.
Other research, published in Frontiers in Psychology, showed that performance in identifying emotions was significantly reduced in three- to five-year-olds because others wore masks.
The authors of the study say that the results indicate that the muzzle “can” affect “social development and emotional reasoning.”
For her part, said Carol Vidal, psychiatrist at Johns Hopkins University: “I think we as a society should be concerned, but parents shouldn’t worry about it all the time.”
Vidal, who works in American schools, is one of a group of scholars calling for… Stop imposing masks in schools.
She told “AFP” that masks “are no longer necessary at this stage of the epidemic”, given the reduced risks that children are exposed to in the face of Corona and the availability of vaccines starting from the age of five.
And she considered that the issue is related to the balance between benefits and risks, adding that the risks arising from wearing a mask “may not be great in terms of immediate effects…but I think we have to be careful.”