Posted on 02/16/2021 8:35:05 AM PST by karpov
My daughter’s friend was recently alarmed when she was told that her two-year-old must wear a mask in preschool. Her little girl already struggles to make herself understood, and her mother worries that the mask will make it harder for her daughter to be understood and that she will have trouble telling what her masked peers and teachers are saying.
Now that the face mask has become the essential accoutrement of our lives, the COVID pandemic has laid bare our fundamental need to see whole faces. Could it be that babies and young children, who must learn the meaning of the myriad communicative signals normally available in their social partners’ faces, are especially vulnerable to their degradation in partially visible faces?
Faces are a complex and rich source of social, emotional and linguistic signals. We rely on all of these signals to communicate with one another through a complex and dynamic dance that depends on each partner being able to read the other’s signals. Interestingly, even when we can see whole faces, we often have trouble telling what other people are feeling. For instance, as the psychologist Lisa Feldman Barrett has noted, we can interpret a smile as meaning “I’m happy,” “I like you” or “I’m embarrassed”. So, seeing partially visible faces robs us of a plethora of linguistic signals that are essential for communication.
Babies and young children see and hear communicative signals and learn to attach meanings to them through their everyday interactions with their caregivers and social partners. Take, for example, a baby at a birthday party or in a day care center where several masked people can be heard and seen talking.
(Excerpt) Read more at scientificamerican.com ...
Calling daycare for children who are toddlers “preschool” is an abuse of the English language.
Has anyone thought about the deaf people who rely on lip reading? Forcing masks is blatant discrimination!
Yep. Unintended consequences. We are a nation of stupid people, bar none.
suboptimal IQ people are easier to lie to in control.
But yes forcing toddlers and those around them to wear masks that hide their faces is a social development experiment and is abusive.
Why is a two year old in preschool? Must be a euphemism for day care
Give me a break. How about the two year old be at home instead.
Sounds like a lawsuit to me. Being forced to do or wear something that causes harm before any true research was done to determine if it s safe to force people to wear these.
The left screamed about hcq being “untested” “unsafe”, when the reality was that it had near.y 50 years of safety record, but they run towards forcing everyone to wear oxygen depriving devices, and haven’t a clue about the mental, social development ramifications of the masks either
I want signs that shout “BREATHING IS IMPORTANT!”
It’s not just 2-year-olds, it’s tough on this nearly 66-year-old trying to teach and interact with a class of adults in a series of technical training courses required by their employer. The school requires masks for all so I speak extra-loudly behind my mask and have to strain to hear the students with comments/questions. This is exacerbated by many of the students not being native English speakers so I can’t read lips or full facial expressions to better understand them.
Well, common sense. So when is the author going to be cancelled, hounded out of his profession or taken out and executed?
I’m only surprised this appeared in Scientific American.
It’s not just 2-year-olds, it’s tough on this nearly 66-year-old trying to teach and interact with a class of adults in a series of technical training courses required by their employer. The school requires masks for all so I speak extra-loudly behind my mask and have to strain to hear the students with comments/questions. This is exacerbated by many of the students not being native English speakers so I can’t read lips or full facial expressions to better understand them.
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My problem exactly. Now try it with a face shield as well (and gloves)
No communications. No listening. No understanding.
Everyone sounds like Kenny from South Park, including me.
You must have missed the memo on this... single women on government assistance with two year olds must be provided with at least eight hours of “me” time each day, unless they are not in a government recognized group discriminated against by the majority. But if that is the case, they still have the option of calling themself a lesbian, a transgender person, or declaring that they self-identify as a member of a discriminated against ethnic group. So no one has to be left out.
Ping
She should keep her baby at home. Priorities.
Not good for deaf people, either. Hard to read lips.
Oh goodness. I hadn’t even thought about that stage of development. Ick.
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