Pandemic Babies and Speech

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here’s what the AAP says about masks and speech: https://www.healthychildren.org/English/health-issues/conditions/COVID-19/Pages/Do-face-masks-interfere-with-language-development.aspx

Our toddler and preschooler have both learned two languages over the past two years, and because we are at high risk, we live like we’re in a monastery except for preschool, which is fully masked.

One of the challenges of this kind of discussion is that it’s really, really hard to control for confounding variables in human subject research and we tend to see our own experiences (and ignore anything that doesn’t conform to it). You have to be exceptionally well trained to avoid these obstacles when evaluating the effects of various policies and interventions.

If masks are contributing to speech delays, good evidence to that effect is not yet available. OTOH, we have very clear evidence that Covid can be quite dangerous. And masks and distancing are among our limited tools for dealing with it. Sometimes you have to make the best of a bad situation.

It's a little disturbing that the AAP cites visually impaired children as proof that masks can't possibly impact development, when large percentages of blind children have developmental disabilities. They are making claims they can't possibly have the information to make.

+1. And you can’t make the comparison between a child who sees nothing and I child you sometimes sees words mouthed and other times not. Plus blind kids touch faces and mouths which our kids can’t. AND blind children do have delayed speech in my experience.

What are you even advocating for, though? There is no reasonable way to request/require "no masks for caregivers" for licensed daycare centers. Not going to happen, they will always be allowed. The requirements for them probably will eventually drop, but who knows when. It won't be driven by parents, but by health.

Are you advocating everyone should use a nanny or stay home with their little ones?

Are you just trying to stir up fear in parents, or manufacture a controversy?

NP here. I truly loathe comments like yours. Let information (even anecdotal information) be shared without accusing those sharing of Mommy-shaming or fear-mongering or manufacturing controversy or daycare slamming!!! Jesus, stop demanding censorship to protect your ego. We each can read and make our own decisions on what, if anything, need be done with the information.

Let people talk!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here’s what the AAP says about masks and speech: https://www.healthychildren.org/English/health-issues/conditions/COVID-19/Pages/Do-face-masks-interfere-with-language-development.aspx

Our toddler and preschooler have both learned two languages over the past two years, and because we are at high risk, we live like we’re in a monastery except for preschool, which is fully masked.

One of the challenges of this kind of discussion is that it’s really, really hard to control for confounding variables in human subject research and we tend to see our own experiences (and ignore anything that doesn’t conform to it). You have to be exceptionally well trained to avoid these obstacles when evaluating the effects of various policies and interventions.

If masks are contributing to speech delays, good evidence to that effect is not yet available. OTOH, we have very clear evidence that Covid can be quite dangerous. And masks and distancing are among our limited tools for dealing with it. Sometimes you have to make the best of a bad situation.

It's a little disturbing that the AAP cites visually impaired children as proof that masks can't possibly impact development, when large percentages of blind children have developmental disabilities. They are making claims they can't possibly have the information to make.

+1. And you can’t make the comparison between a child who sees nothing and I child you sometimes sees words mouthed and other times not. Plus blind kids touch faces and mouths which our kids can’t. AND blind children do have delayed speech in my experience.

What are you even advocating for, though? There is no reasonable way to request/require "no masks for caregivers" for licensed daycare centers. Not going to happen, they will always be allowed. The requirements for them probably will eventually drop, but who knows when. It won't be driven by parents, but by health.

Are you advocating everyone should use a nanny or stay home with their little ones?

Are you just trying to stir up fear in parents, or manufacture a controversy?

NP here. I truly loathe comments like yours. Let information (even anecdotal information) be shared without accusing those sharing of Mommy-shaming or fear-mongering or manufacturing controversy or daycare slamming!!! Jesus, stop demanding censorship to protect your ego. We each can read and make our own decisions on what, if anything, need be done with the information.

Let people talk!!

This PP just wants to shut this conversation down by ignoring or dismissing the multiple people who have told her that we want masks to be OPTIONAL for kids. Nobody is proposing prohibiting caregivers from wearing masks, I think some would like to see masks optional for all, though that's a bit of a separate issue (I really don't understand why pro-maskers get so worked up about making sure everyone is wearing cloth or surgical masks that don't even make a difference).

[Anonymous]

Out of curiosity, for those of you who assert that masks should be optional, do you feel the same way about peanut butter?

Should I be able to send my kid, who is a super picky eater and eats mostly PBJ right now, to school with a peanut butter sandwich instead of the contortions I go through to try and find stuff he can eat that doesn't include nuts, which right now, is only apples and Pirate's Booty?

It's clearly to my child's benefit to be able to eat peanut butter in school. Why should I give a crap about the kid who is allergic?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Out of curiosity, for those of you who assert that masks should be optional, do you feel the same way about peanut butter?

Should I be able to send my kid, who is a super picky eater and eats mostly PBJ right now, to school with a peanut butter sandwich instead of the contortions I go through to try and find stuff he can eat that doesn't include nuts, which right now, is only apples and Pirate's Booty?

It's clearly to my child's benefit to be able to eat peanut butter in school. Why should I give a crap about the kid who is allergic?

Yes, we all know peanuts can be deadly to kids that are allergic.

We have no evidence that not requiring a young child to wear a cloth mask for the other half of the day when they aren't eating or sleeping has any benefit, at all.

But if it makes you feel better to participate in this theater, nobody is forcing you to sign the petition.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Out of curiosity, for those of you who assert that masks should be optional, do you feel the same way about peanut butter?

Should I be able to send my kid, who is a super picky eater and eats mostly PBJ right now, to school with a peanut butter sandwich instead of the contortions I go through to try and find stuff he can eat that doesn't include nuts, which right now, is only apples and Pirate's Booty?

It's clearly to my child's benefit to be able to eat peanut butter in school. Why should I give a crap about the kid who is allergic?

Yes, we all know peanuts can be deadly to kids that are allergic.

We have no evidence that not requiring a young child to wear a cloth mask for the other half of the day when they aren't eating or sleeping has any benefit, at all.

But if it makes you feel better to participate in this theater, nobody is forcing you to sign the petition.

Masks aren't theater. And, you are entirely missing the point. You basically don't care about anyone, including your own kids. Most kids are fine with masks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Out of curiosity, for those of you who assert that masks should be optional, do you feel the same way about peanut butter?

Should I be able to send my kid, who is a super picky eater and eats mostly PBJ right now, to school with a peanut butter sandwich instead of the contortions I go through to try and find stuff he can eat that doesn't include nuts, which right now, is only apples and Pirate's Booty?

It's clearly to my child's benefit to be able to eat peanut butter in school. Why should I give a crap about the kid who is allergic?

Maybe you should write a petition to the World Health Organization to stop irresponsibly recommending against children under 6 wearing masks. Let's make sure ALL young children across the globe are wearing masks around other children, and stop unknowingly murdering each other.

[Anonymous]

DD will be 18 months next week and has about 20-25 single words. She has been at home (no daycare) with me, DH and DHs mom who lives with us.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Out of curiosity, for those of you who assert that masks should be optional, do you feel the same way about peanut butter?

Should I be able to send my kid, who is a super picky eater and eats mostly PBJ right now, to school with a peanut butter sandwich instead of the contortions I go through to try and find stuff he can eat that doesn't include nuts, which right now, is only apples and Pirate's Booty?

It's clearly to my child's benefit to be able to eat peanut butter in school. Why should I give a crap about the kid who is allergic?

Yes, we all know peanuts can be deadly to kids that are allergic.

We have no evidence that not requiring a young child to wear a cloth mask for the other half of the day when they aren't eating or sleeping has any benefit, at all.

But if it makes you feel better to participate in this theater, nobody is forcing you to sign the petition.

Masks aren't theater. And, you are entirely missing the point. You basically don't care about anyone, including your own kids. Most kids are fine with masks.

Insulting my parenting is a pathetic way to distract from the fact that you are dead wrong. Do you know who actually knows something about this? Michael Osterholm. This is what he says about cloth or surgical masks: "Cotton or surgical masks are more for show than effective protection, especially against omicron." https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/12/30/omicron-variant-challenges-covid/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Out of curiosity, for those of you who assert that masks should be optional, do you feel the same way about peanut butter?

Should I be able to send my kid, who is a super picky eater and eats mostly PBJ right now, to school with a peanut butter sandwich instead of the contortions I go through to try and find stuff he can eat that doesn't include nuts, which right now, is only apples and Pirate's Booty?

It's clearly to my child's benefit to be able to eat peanut butter in school. Why should I give a crap about the kid who is allergic?

Really poor analogy. Let me fix it for you: your child is falling behind because he can’t eat peanut butter in daycare because there is a slim chance the other kid might be allergic and have a minor reaction. So your kid is suffering for what is a slight risk of a minor reaction.

Besides, that’s not what I’m advocating. I want the adult teachers masks off in the infant and toddler rooms and replaced by a daily nose-swab covid test for the caregivers.

[Anonymous]

Why does whether or not the children wear masks have any bearing on language development for the infant/young toddler crowd? They aren’t wearing masks. The caregivers (those they would watch and emulate in speech development) are the ones in masks. Our daycare doesn’t require masks on children younger than 5, per Virginia policy. Toddlers wearing masks isn’t going to have an impact on early speech development; caregivers wearing masks may be a different story.
I’m a PP from early on in this thread who does think there is a minor impact on the language development of my younger DD (19mo) due to the fact that she is surrounded by masked caregivers 8.5 hours a day. Our pediatrician says (anecdotally, of course) that she has seen an uptick in speech issues with this particular age group. I am NOT advocating for my child’s caregivers to be unmasked…far from it. I’m just trying to make myself more aware and trying to compensate more here at home.

[Anonymous]

I thought this would be a helpful thread with tips.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I thought this would be a helpful thread with tips.

Looking for tips to promote optimal speech development? How old is your child?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Out of curiosity, for those of you who assert that masks should be optional, do you feel the same way about peanut butter?

Should I be able to send my kid, who is a super picky eater and eats mostly PBJ right now, to school with a peanut butter sandwich instead of the contortions I go through to try and find stuff he can eat that doesn't include nuts, which right now, is only apples and Pirate's Booty?

It's clearly to my child's benefit to be able to eat peanut butter in school. Why should I give a crap about the kid who is allergic?

Really poor analogy. Let me fix it for you: your child is falling behind because he can’t eat peanut butter in daycare because there is a slim chance the other kid might be allergic and have a minor reaction. So your kid is suffering for what is a slight risk of a minor reaction.

Besides, that’s not what I’m advocating. I want the adult teachers masks off in the infant and toddler rooms and replaced by a daily nose-swab covid test for the caregivers.

The only way that would work is if all the families did daily nose swabs too.

[Anonymous]

Omg stop the craziness. Parents have a right to send their kids to a place that encourages development. We know for a fact based on data that masks can inhibit speech development, and have for thousands of toddlers. If some parents are more concerned about COVID, then sure you have a right to send your kids to a place that masks. But there is zero - ZERO - evidence that cloth masks prevent COVID. You don’t get to mandate away other parents’ rights without citing concrete scientific data and studies. You mandate folks are losing on this issue and your unscientific grasp on society is loosening, causing you to have a freaking panic attack, I guess. Get help.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I thought this would be a helpful thread with tips.

Looking for tips to promote optimal speech development? How old is your child?

Young enough that the topic interested me.