You sure that we learn facial expression cues visually? My perception has always been that I look at a face and feel how I’d feel if my face were like that. And I could have sworn I’d heard it had to with mirror neurons.
Also, do you have any reason to think that, even if children actually didn’t see other faces and missed learning opportunities, they couldn’t make up any deficits later? I know children can learn a new language for far more than a year, and facial cues are body language.
The thread where this came from already has these articles.
I’ll add a few more cites.
As was noted in the thread, the primary caregivers would mostly be unmasked in their own home, so the child would see a lot of their caregivers’ faces. In addition, some people in the articles are recommending transparent face masks and being more intentional about giving face time.
I work in an environment where, not only do we have to wear face masks, we also have to wear smocks that cover us from head to toe.
When i first started working there I would have to meet people twice. Once in their smocks and once with out their smocks. It didn’t take long for me to start recognizing people by their eyes.
Same with smiling. The cheek muscles rise and the eyes squint.
That’s not really a conclusion. It’s an obvious observation and a suggestion. Children learn from their peers. Some of that can be substituted with siblings but not always.
Well, you’re incorrect. Children need to learn that skill. In one of the articles Roo linked, there was a suggestion for people dealing with certain ages to wear identifying similar clothes/accessories to help children with recognizing them.
Sure, they need to learn it. But it’s easier for them bc they don’t have any preconceived notions of how to recognize somebody. It took me a minute bc I normally recognize people by their face. As most people do.
But if a child grows up in an environment where faces are covered, that child will naturally find other ways of recognizing people. At that young age, their synaptic pathways are still developing, thus making it easier for them to learn.
Looks like the CDC and WHO/UNICEF have conflicting thoughts. The WHO doesn’t recommend masks for children under 5 years old:
An international and multidisciplinary expert group brought together by WHO reviewed evidence on COVID-19 disease and transmission in children and the limited available evidence on the use of masks by children.
Based on this and other factors such as childrens’ psychosocial needs and developmental milestones, WHO and UNICEF advise the following:
Children aged 5 years and under should not be required to wear masks. This is based on the safety and overall interest of the child and the capacity to appropriately use a mask with minimal assistance.
The WHO/UNICEF used the following methodology to come to that conclusion in meetings held between June and August 2020 and doesn’t appear to have revisited it as far as I can tell.
The World Health Organization (WHO) Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) Guidance Development Group (GDG) and experts from UNICEF and the International Paediatric Association (IPA) jointly reviewed the available evidence to develop guidance on the use of masks for children in the context of the current pandemic. Five international expert meetings were held between June and August 2020. In the absence of strong scientific evidence, consensus among these groups forms the main basis for this guidance. Furthermore, the draft guidance was reviewed by a multidisciplinary group of additional external experts prior to finalization.
The CDC appears to continually reassess the impact of COVID-19 in children on an ongoing basis, such as here.
Compared with seroprevalence data from older age groups in Mississippi, data from this study sample suggests that cumulative infection rates by mid-September among persons aged <18 years were similar to those among persons aged 18–49 years, the age group with the highest seroprevalence during the period.
It should also be noted that they are likely coming from different places, much as many economists are trying to play epidemiologist right now to get us to start going out and buying shit again. UNICEF most certainly is weighing COVID risks against issues around child development/education, abuse in the home, impact on HIV in children, and poverty and hunger, for instance. This is where many pediatricians were focused as well, which is why many were against most remote learning. I believe CDC is pretty focused on how do we stop COVID-19 as the highest priority.
I don’t really blame either of the two as they appear to be concerned about their wheelhouses first.
You can learn languages your whole life, it just gets harder and after a certain age, you’ll probably never sound like a native speaker. I’m sure children will adapt but if your language analogy holds, they may never be quite as good in some skills if they’re masked or isolated through a certain developmental stage.
Little Johnny may never learn a proper sneer! Can we live with that?!?
I would agree if it were their entire childhood (and this actually did impact them) but my proposal is that they’ll make it up during the normal time period, same as children can do when they start learning a new language a few years later.
Ok, I’m not talking about some great harm here but your ability to learn a language degrades as you get older. I don’t think you can assume you can always “catch up” completely. A teenager is able to become completely fluent in a language but will likely retain a hint of accent if he didn’t start at 6 yrs old.
This is uncharted territory. I don’t think any educated child development expert would simply wave away the possibility that spending ages 2-4 in a masked cohort could cause harm.
