Do you think everyone wearing masks in public has an impact on interaction with babies/ young children?

[dellarossa]

Just interested in people’s thoughts and experiences with this...

My 6 month old ignores me trying to interact with her if I'm wearing a mask. Fortunately I only wear it when I'm with her for one shopping trip a week. We'll be doing a baby group soon but it's outdoors so I'm hoping it won't require masks, and we're also booked in for baby swimming, where I've been asked to wear a mask for changing but obviously not for the pool. I don't think I'd go to a baby group where we had to wear masks as I'm not sure it would do anything for her.

It's obvious to anyone with a brain that masks are detrimental to young children. The sooner we can ditch them the better. Miserable being unable to see smiles! And a young child must feel less 'noticed' when everyone around them is masked. That can't be good for mental health, short or longterm.

@PlantDoctor

18 mo DD has never cared about masks. She was 3 months when the first lockdown started. We aren't in mask-requiring places for long enough each day for it to impact her. I do feel for people with conditions like ASD, as it must make life much harder.

Ok I'm.not a child but I have ASD and other people wearing masks causes me so many issues. Firstly I'm terrible at reading faces/emotions when I can see the whole face, I'm never quite sure I've read the room right and if the person is happy/angry/serious/joking. With only the eyes to go on I don't have a chance, which obviously makes me even more anxious in social interactions than normal. Then there's the fact that as with most ASD I'm not comfortable with eye contact. But I know its polite to look at someone that's talking to you. So I've always focused on the mouth. Now I can't do that, which means I even pretend that I'm looking at them. Masks also muffle sound, and I have problems picking out and concentrating on a single voice if there are any auditory distractions, for example music, TV, other people talking on the other side of the room, a clock ticking, cars outside...I'm sure you get it. So for me it's not just about wearing a mask myself (can't do it, can't stand things touching my head just adds to the sensory overload), others wearing masks adds to my sensory issues and pushes me in to overload.

So yes children with ASD and I would imagine young children who are just starting to make sense of all the nuances of socialisation are affected by others wearing masks. Many of these children will catch up when masks go (please let them go soon), but some won't, and especially those who have issues anyway

But the virtue-signallers who want to wear masks for years don’t like to hear anything negative about their beloved muzzles

I wouldn’t call them muzzles personally. But there is a minority of people, very vocal on social media, who simply will not accept that any of our Covid measures - masks, social distancing, lockdowns, loss of services, even sometimes school closures - might be in any way detrimental to children. To many paediatricians’ dismay, they also refuse to believe the frequent ‘good news’ reports about how little young children are affected by Covid - it’s always ‘But Long Covid!’, ‘But Indian variant!’ etc.

I think it’s because this denial helps them to justify the measures they’re calling for without the accompanying feelings of guilt that we’re harming one group in order to protect another.

My son was 6 months old when we went into the first lockdown. He 'talks' lots at home with us and if we meet friends outdoors without masks. As soon as I or someone else has a mask on, he doesn't interact with them at all. Our area did a speech screening at 18 months, but as the health visitor had to wear a mask and visor then sit far away he had no interest in interacting with her. I think his speech is slightly behind as he mainly interacts with his siblings, so can make himself understood without making a big effort to use proper words. It isn't just masks, but the social isolation as well that is contributing.

And to add to the children with additional needs, very rarely are these kinds of additional needs obvious from birth. Children aren't born with handy labels and certificates and it usually takes years of struggling along and "wait and see" for the full picture to become apparent.

DS was 2.5 when I first flagged up his speech to the HVs. He was 9 when there was enough of a picture to have gone through referal and reach a diagnosis, and he's one of the lucky ones that had an astute parent that strongly suspected what she was looking at and HCPs that took it seriously. There are thousands and thousands of children out there who struggle on without investigation and diagnosis until their teens, adulthood or never.

The pandemic response particularly in 2020 massively ignored the needs of children. Playgrounds were opened on the same day as pubs. I could take my children to the pub, but they couldn't go to school. Toddler groups barely got chance to get going in the autumn. Children were excluded by the rule of 6; you could go drinking in a pub with 5 friends totalling 6 households, but it was illegal to go for a walk as two normal sized families. Primary age children could not legally meet a friend for exercise over the winter because they require adult supervision.
I have broken some of these poxy "laws" because my children's welfare comes first, but their opportunities have been massively compromised because of other peoples' blind obedience to the negligible benefits and inconsistencies. The government has realised some of these errors by modifying them and the order of restrictions lifting.

It is infuriating how much the needs and difficulties of children have been swept under the carpet and minimised.

I have to say I'm grateful my typical twins are the lockdown babies not my now 5 year old. We were in and out of hospital for months, we had so much HV support, his speech delays and learning delays were a slow process but we had amazing support from portage. I wonder how many children like my son will actually be fobbed off as "pandemic delay, they'll be fine" so won't get the support when they should

I think there’s some truth in that unfortunately temps

@CoffeeWithCheese
I disagree although you (like me) are biased as you are being directly affected. I am very sorry for your child and others with hearing difficulties but teachers and nursery staff have their own families and children. Many of my colleagues have and continue to wear masks until we have had both vaccinations as our health and our responsibilities to our own families is our highest priority. It’s no different from the differences in services in many other industries (GPS, dentists, shops, banks). Rather than berating teachers for wearing masks to protect themselves from a diseases which meant other places of work have only just opened up, perhaps push for teachers to get boosters earlier? There is such a disconnect between the attitude of how vital our work is and how we should do it with no regards to our safety.

I am not a ‘muzzle’ lover and will ditch them when my second vaccine kicks in, by the way. So the advantages of vaccinating staff sooner would have been felt by all...

My husband is a secondary school teacher. Many of us are fully immersed in the conflicting issues thanks. Not one union rep is interested in my husband’s concerns about assessment, workloads and the effects on pupils, they’re all just talking about masks and nothing else. He obviously wears his mask as required, makes adjustments for pupils that need it, but he is concerned about the effects of restrictions on his own baby and toddler too.

I do think huge damage will have been done to young children. That damage will not be uniform and it will be those with SN who suffer most and those from wealthy families who could keep them in childcare who suffer least, so existing attainment gaps will only widen for this cohort unless they are heavily invested in as part of the recovery.

I also agree that young children (and their parents, in particular new mothers) have been largely forgotten, and that baby groups, playgrounds etc could've opened sooner than they did.

I just don't think masks are a big part of that as most kids don't spend that long around masked adults, so even if they do struggle it's only a small portion of the day.

‘I just don't think masks are a big part of that as most kids don't spend that long around masked adults, so even if they do struggle it's only a small portion of the day.’

I don’t think that’s true though. My 2 year old spends her nursery days surrounded by masked adults. My 4yo is taught by a teacher in a mask.

My children are both at nursery and the staff don’t wear masks within their bubbles - just at handover and in staff communal areas. Maybe that’s why I don’t feel they have had much of an effect on my own children - because compared to some they haven’t experienced it a great deal? I take mine into shops but I find dealing with a baby and toddler whilst wearing a mask extremely difficult so haven’t done many public indoor activities with them over the last year.

No issue with disagreement @BustopherPonsonbyJones - I took very big issue with the quote being very selectively pulled without any context.

If I could be arsed I would go pull out the notes about eye tracking for young children looking at caregivers talking at them (the still face experiment's already been posted) - but arguing on this one is pointless. The masks have now been removed at my kids' school - there's the odd visor but not many - but I really really took issue with the way any other communication need other than deaf to the point of needing a hearing aid (so ignoring kids with glue ear, issues with specific frequency hearing loss, auditory processing difficulties) was just dismissed as non-existent.

I was working in a primary classroom the other day with a colleague wearing a visor - and it's a special school class so very very small compared to mainstream - and I was really really struggling to hear and process what she was saying over the background noise as her voice was just being bounced back at her by the visor and not toward me like normal. Thank fuck they sign along with speaking in that school so I could semi-fall back on Makaton!

Probably specific to a particular age and disposition. When I was maybe 6 or so, I think I would've been scared if I only remember seeing some individual like a teacher with a mask on and then one day I see their mouth and nose. There must be kids as easily spooked as I used to be. Other than that, I doubt much difference

Absolutely. Babies take a lot of cues from facial expressions. It's also without doubt having an effect on domestic pets. I work with animals and dogs in particular are a lot less trustful when they can't read your face.
There was a woman in the dentists waiting room yesterday with 2 little kids and she was lecturing them on how they needed to keep their masks on or they'd make people ill. I just though wtf are people doing to their kids. I told her it was fine and didn't bother me (I was the only other person there).

I think that it will have an impact but as for how much I am not sure

Children and babies especially take cues from facial expressions as well as spoken words, tone, volume etc

As long as their main care givers don't wear them all the time it should be fine

However the constant hand washing and underlying fear is more worrying imo hence the rise in MH concerns

Seeing every human interaction as a threat is a shame and not a great way to develop social skills or feel secure in the world you live in

I got hate for this on here but I really, really hated wearing a mask / visor to teach in. It was horrible.

No I don't think there will be negative effects. My baby was born on March 23rd 2020. She has seen plenty of people without masks on - at home all day for one, but also friends out and about, strangers outdoors, people we stop and chat to etc. In fact she is far more smiley and sociable than my older daughter was at this age.
People still chat with her in the supermarket, they smile behind the mask or pull the mask down to smile at her. If anything it is probably helping her to understand things like eye expressions and body language because she can tell someone is smiling from those cues and smiles back.

Also remember that masks are only indoor public places while moving around, not everywhere. We have been to plenty of outdoor places where people aren't wearing masks.

I struggle to understand this. I have spent years mainly mixing outside with women wearing face coverings. The children all seemed fine.

@Dustyhedge I thought nursery staff did not wear masks? Certainly they do not where I live.

My neighbour's cat ignores me, and I still get a mixed reaction from dogs, but no change from young children.

I am always surprised when people on MN about people wearing masks outside. I see no one wearing a mask outside and very few people since the start of the pandemic.

I think it’s because this denial helps them to justify the measures they’re calling for without the accompanying feelings of guilt that we’re harming one group in order to protect another.

Totally agree with this.

I’m a speech and language therapist. They 100% effect communication negatively. I think they should be banned in schools.