Anonymous wrote:
Does anyone here believe that mask wearing by a significant caregiver does not delay the speech development of babies and toddlers?

I believe that across a population, mask wearing by a significant caregiver causes more speech delays that would happen without masks. I do not believe that mask wearing causes speech delays in every child. I choose to roll the dice on speech delays by sending my children to daycare with masked caregivers and I’m not advocating for them to be unmasked since I am more concerned about illness in the caregiver than increased risk of speech delay for my children but I would love to see some population level studies on this to actually see what the relative risks actually are.

Does anyone here believe that mask wearing by a significant caregiver does not delay the speech development of babies and toddlers?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I challenge any pediatrician to say that keeping your mouth covered while speaking to a baby or toddler might not have any speech development consequences.
However, one may certainly debate exactly how severe the consequences will be, dependent on endless individual circumstances.

Then, if you are so concerned, don't send your kids to child care and keep them home and talk to them all day.

Wrong answer. Withdrawing our kids doesn’t fix the problem. Some of us may be privileged in that we can afford to pull our kids out temporarily or permanently, but change is achieved when people instead stay where they are and advocate to make the system better for all.

Not to mention - I like my job and am not quitting

I’d add that we have kept DD at home. I took a break from work and then individual child care. She has great language skills but I am worried about her social interactions. She doesn’t see other kids often and now that it’s winter we go to the park less or go and few or no kids her age are there. So you change one set of problems for another.

This has little to do with masks in a childcare setting, right? You can’t force other people to socialize with your child if they prefer to be cautious during a global pandemic.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I challenge any pediatrician to say that keeping your mouth covered while speaking to a baby or toddler might not have any speech development consequences.
However, one may certainly debate exactly how severe the consequences will be, dependent on endless individual circumstances.

Then, if you are so concerned, don't send your kids to child care and keep them home and talk to them all day.

Wrong answer. Withdrawing our kids doesn’t fix the problem. Some of us may be privileged in that we can afford to pull our kids out temporarily or permanently, but change is achieved when people instead stay where they are and advocate to make the system better for all.

Not to mention - I like my job and am not quitting

I’d add that we have kept DD at home. I took a break from work and then individual child care. She has great language skills but I am worried about her social interactions. She doesn’t see other kids often and now that it’s winter we go to the park less or go and few or no kids her age are there. So you change one set of problems for another.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The verdict is in. Sorry mask-enforcer science-deniers. Time.To.Lift.Restrictions.That.Harm.Children.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/babies-born-pandemic-slight-developmental-lag-study-finds-rcna10872

Did you read the article or the study? Surprisingly, speech/communication wasn't impacted.

How about some basic common sense?
How exactly do you suppose babies and toddlers learn to speak?

Think about it.

The article doesn’t say much about masks. It talks about the host of issues parents have faced during the pandemic.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The verdict is in. Sorry mask-enforcer science-deniers. Time.To.Lift.Restrictions.That.Harm.Children.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/babies-born-pandemic-slight-developmental-lag-study-finds-rcna10872

Did you read the article or the study? Surprisingly, speech/communication wasn't impacted.

How about some basic common sense?
How exactly do you suppose babies and toddlers learn to speak?

Think about it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you think masking/child care is the issue, then consider other child care options like having a nanny or work with them more at home when you/they aren't masked.

OP here. I can’t tell if you are trying to be helpful. Do you or anyone else have specific exercises or online resources to recommend in terms of “work with them more at home” or is it just to read a lot and narrate everything, because that is basic parenting and we are doing that.

He mimics inflection (for instance, here you go! or where’s Larlo?) and can carry the ABC tune pretty decently, but almost exclusively only has words for mama.

How old is your child?

17 months

I would contact EI. In MoCo they gave us a report of where our child was relative to other kids without delays and what we needed to target. And if there’s no significant cause for concern they’ll tell you that too. Speaking for myself I found it helpful to read Laura Mize’s website and her daily e-mail tips. She is a speech language pathologist who specializes in late talking kids. I also used the Hanen Center’s More than Words book.

Great advice!

Anonymous wrote:The verdict is in. Sorry mask-enforcer science-deniers. Time.To.Lift.Restrictions.That.Harm.Children.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/babies-born-pandemic-slight-developmental-lag-study-finds-rcna10872

You might want to go back and re-read the article that you posted.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you think masking/child care is the issue, then consider other child care options like having a nanny or work with them more at home when you/they aren't masked.

OP here. I can’t tell if you are trying to be helpful. Do you or anyone else have specific exercises or online resources to recommend in terms of “work with them more at home” or is it just to read a lot and narrate everything, because that is basic parenting and we are doing that.

He mimics inflection (for instance, here you go! or where’s Larlo?) and can carry the ABC tune pretty decently, but almost exclusively only has words for mama.

How old is your child?

17 months

I would contact EI. In MoCo they gave us a report of where our child was relative to other kids without delays and what we needed to target. And if there’s no significant cause for concern they’ll tell you that too. Speaking for myself I found it helpful to read Laura Mize’s website and her daily e-mail tips. She is a speech language pathologist who specializes in late talking kids. I also used the Hanen Center’s More than Words book.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you think masking/child care is the issue, then consider other child care options like having a nanny or work with them more at home when you/they aren't masked.

OP here. I can’t tell if you are trying to be helpful. Do you or anyone else have specific exercises or online resources to recommend in terms of “work with them more at home” or is it just to read a lot and narrate everything, because that is basic parenting and we are doing that.

He mimics inflection (for instance, here you go! or where’s Larlo?) and can carry the ABC tune pretty decently, but almost exclusively only has words for mama.

How old is your child?

17 months

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you think masking/child care is the issue, then consider other child care options like having a nanny or work with them more at home when you/they aren't masked.

OP here. I can’t tell if you are trying to be helpful. Do you or anyone else have specific exercises or online resources to recommend in terms of “work with them more at home” or is it just to read a lot and narrate everything, because that is basic parenting and we are doing that.

He mimics inflection (for instance, here you go! or where’s Larlo?) and can carry the ABC tune pretty decently, but almost exclusively only has words for mama.

How old is your child?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you think masking/child care is the issue, then consider other child care options like having a nanny or work with them more at home when you/they aren't masked.

OP here. I can’t tell if you are trying to be helpful. Do you or anyone else have specific exercises or online resources to recommend in terms of “work with them more at home” or is it just to read a lot and narrate everything, because that is basic parenting and we are doing that.

He mimics inflection (for instance, here you go! or where’s Larlo?) and can carry the ABC tune pretty decently, but almost exclusively only has words for mama.

If you are concerned then contact your county’s early intervention service. They will evaluate and let you know where things stand. You can also get speech therapy. We started with EI and it was very helpful for us.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The verdict is in. Sorry mask-enforcer science-deniers. Time.To.Lift.Restrictions.That.Harm.Children.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/babies-born-pandemic-slight-developmental-lag-study-finds-rcna10872

Did you read the article or the study? Surprisingly, speech/communication wasn't impacted.

DP. I agree that the article doesn’t conclude communication delays… but their focus was on 6 month olds. I’m not sure that it’s reasonable to measure 6 month olds for speech delay.

But they said communication skills were advanced which is weird. I wonder if it’s also a timing thing — this study was babies born March 2020-December 2020 so it included a bunk of lockdowns in NYC where the babies won’t have been with masked caregivers but rather with their (very stressed) parents. I hope the researchers will continue to track this though!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The verdict is in. Sorry mask-enforcer science-deniers. Time.To.Lift.Restrictions.That.Harm.Children.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/babies-born-pandemic-slight-developmental-lag-study-finds-rcna10872

Did you read the article or the study? Surprisingly, speech/communication wasn't impacted.

DP. I agree that the article doesn’t conclude communication delays… but their focus was on 6 month olds. I’m not sure that it’s reasonable to measure 6 month olds for speech delay.

Anonymous wrote:The verdict is in. Sorry mask-enforcer science-deniers. Time.To.Lift.Restrictions.That.Harm.Children.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/babies-born-pandemic-slight-developmental-lag-study-finds-rcna10872

Did you read the article or the study? Surprisingly, speech/communication wasn't impacted.