March 6, 2022

"Being deprived of seeing half of the face could be overcome precisely because of that brain plasticity. Babies and young children are far more adaptable to their changing conditions in the world than we are as adults."

Said David Lewkowicz, who studies speech and language development in young children, quoted in "Do masks for young children impede their language development? Research is sparse on this issue. But the few studies that do exist suggest masks do not inhibit kids from learning how to communicate" (WaPo).

There's an understandable effort to assure parents that there children are not being damaged by masks, but in amongst the reassurance, I'm reading:

Research has shown babies who pay attention to people’s mouths as they talk have better language skills when they’re older. Plus, we know babies learn by modeling their caregivers’ behaviors, such as smiling, laughing and talking... 

And anecdotes like:

Emily Langworthy’s 2-year-old daughter, Rosalyn, also attends day care with masked caregivers, and was experiencing language delays. When Rosalyn and her parents contracted the coronavirus and had to isolate for two weeks in January, Rosalyn’s language exploded, Langworthy says. She believes it’s because her daughter was home with her unmasked parents all day.

And advice like:

Most babies and toddlers interact with their siblings, parents and other unmasked caregivers. If children attend day care with masked providers, getting face-to-face, unmasked interaction with their family members before and after will probably offset being around masked adults all day, says David Lewkowicz, a senior scientist at Haskins Laboratories.

80 comments:

David Begley said...

Just got back from Mass at Creighton’s St. John’s. Masks are required except for DDB, Freedom Fighter and Science Advocate.

One 7-8 year old girl with a mask.

I was appalled at this rule; especially at a university.

Yancey Ward said...

The masking of young children and our masking ourselves around them is just fucking evil given the circumstances. There are no excuses now to continue this- it needs to end now, not later. I have no patience with the excuse makers and those who will try to explain away the damage being done.

Mark said...

"will probably offset". Let me translate that for you. It means he has no clue and is just guessing. No studies presented. No science given.

Meanwhile, the CDC recently lowered the language development in expectations their Children's Developmental Milestones. "One of the biggest CDC developmental milestone changes involves language development. With this revision, the CDC delayed speech and language milestones to older ages. Before, the CDC suggested a 24-month-old would say an average of 50 words, but the new guidelines say a 30-month-old should have a vocabulary of 50 words."

https://www.parents.com/toddlers-preschoolers/development/behavioral/everything-parents-need-to-know-about-the-updated-cdc-guidelines-on-developmental-milestones/#:~:text=One%20of%20the%20biggest%20CDC%20developmental%20milestone%20changes,30-month-old%20should%20have%20a%20vocabulary%20of%2050%20words.

Howard said...

An even bigger impediment to kids gaining language skills is watching lame, cheaply made cartoon videos. This produces mush mouth talking that is very common throughout America over the last several decades since the vcr has replaced active parenting.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

We’ve known for a fact since March 2020 that outside the 75-and-older demographic COVID was no more than a bad flu in effect, and that under-25 age groups had higher survival rates than an average flu season. Masking children was useless and mean. Forcing vaccines on kids is immoral when the mRNA “vaccine” has no long-term trials to tell us the dangers we might be thrusting upon them. Making the wickedness worse is the fact that national teachers unions forced most of this unscientific evil on the country’s children to further their own political power and give members two paid vacation years in a row.

JAORE said...

There are no studies that show what we have done is harmful.
Therefore we did not harm.
Children have particularly high flexibility in learning during those first critical years.
Therefore we can toss away those years.

Dear journalists/scientists/Public Health Authorities:
If you have young children or grandchildren wear a mask. Make it comfortable, after all you just pivoted to say masks are not helpful for virus prevention. Just make sure it covers your mouth. Now insist your other children, day care workers and teachers do the same.

I'll bet you get your "studies" that show this is lunacy pretty damn quick.

JAORE said...

"There's an understandable effort to assure parents that there children are not being damaged by masks"

There?

What is understandable is that these people are trying to cover their asses about the horrible harm they have perpetrated.

Achilles said...

Howard said...

An even bigger impediment to kids gaining language skills is watching lame, cheaply made cartoon videos. This produces mush mouth talking that is very common throughout America over the last several decades since the vcr has replaced active parenting.


You see.

Howard isn't as big a piece of shit for pushing the mask mandates because some other people make cartoons.

This is how fucked up these people are.

Howard and all you other shitheads that supported the lock downs and mask mandates and vaccine mandates damaged a generation of kids and killed thousands of people.

You are gullible sheep and evil assholes.

Society will be better prepared for you next time.

Achilles said...

The Teachers unions must be destroyed.

They are populated by evil people that are purposely damaging kids.

Narayanan said...

If children attend day care with masked providers, getting face-to-face, unmasked interaction with their family members before and after will probably offset being around masked adults all day,
==========
substitute /brain dead/ for ?"masked"? and we are all good to talk about education system too. and political etc ...

Bruce Hayden said...

“I was appalled at this rule; especially at a university.”

Why? Progressive orthodoxy is probably at its worst and most virulent on the campuses around the country. Over at VC today, there was a discussion about a letter from the faculty at UC Hastings LS justifying the students shouting down, and ultimately deplatforming Shapiro for his (IMHO) accurate tweet about FJB’s AA nominee to the Supreme Court. Their justification apparently was that leftist feelings were hurt. Sure, Free Speech is fine, in theory. But that has to take second (or later) place when those leftest feelings are at issue. That’s much of academia - militant leftists shouting down anyone even remotely perceived to be off the progressive plantation.

Yes, given your affiliation with Creighton, and it’s Jesuit traditions, you could have hoped for more compassion with traditional American values and virtues. But that was optimistic, as it turned out.

Michael K said...

There has never been a good reason to isolate and mask children. The next step is to inject them with an experimental mRNA substance that has no long term study of late effects. I was talking to my internist last week. He is an obvious Democrat and we have agreed to disagree on much. He has young kids and was telling me his rationale for injecting them with the "vaccine." He said, just like measles and polio, it will give them lifetime immunity. I commented that the "vaccine" effect is gone in weeks. He had no response and we continued with our business.

Wince said...

No sooner is Fauci memory holed, we have another then-and-now expert to take his place, to minimize the masks and the damage done?

Prior to joining Haskins Laboratories as a Senior Scientist in June, 2019, Dr. Lewkowicz was a Professor in the Department of Communication Sciences & Disorders at Northeastern University in Boston. At Northeastern, he directed the Communication Development Laboratory where he conducted studies on the development of speech and language in infants and young children. Through his studies, Dr. Lewkowicz and his students discovered that babies begin lipreading just as they begin babbling and this discovery has paved the way for the current studies in the lab investigating how early lipreading contributes to the acquisition of speech and language in infancy and beyond.

https://llamblab.haskins.yale.edu/our-team/

Jersey Fled said...

CDC recently changed is guidance to pediatricians, increasing the age when children are expected to be able to say and understand 50 words from 24 months to 30 months.

gilbar said...

the few studies that do exist suggest masks do not inhibit kids from learning how to communicate

hmm, now do; "learning how to communicate WELL"
There's communicating, and there is communicating. One involves making a scene, other involves making a face

effinayright said...

CDC recently changed is guidance to pediatricians, increasing the age when children are expected to be able to say and understand 50 words from 24 months to 30 months.
*******************
Welcome to Brave New World! Minitru changes definitions to conform to their ever-changing policies and to hide away government fuck-ups.

They did it with the definition of "vaccine" as well.

@Howard: if children don't die or even get sick from covid, why impose masks on them in the first place? It's easy for you to say that masks are nothing-burgers---you're not a kid.

Why not go knock on the false wall in your house where you've imprisoned your kids for years, and ask them if they are anti-fragile?

TreeJoe said...

Vaccine effectiveness of mRNA vaccines among 5-12 year olds is 10-15%.

Think about that for a moment while it was being pushed by governments, health authorities, and schools.

That data came out AFTER all the pushing. It’s being attributed to the smaller dose size for that age range.

In other words policy is ahead of the science. Which as someone who has spent (20 years) in pharma R and D is about the scariest
Thing I’ve seen my industry stay silent on.

You always do the research and follow the results. You don’t ever take a public stand on efficacy and safety based upon research in other populations with other doses. Yet here we are.

Achilles said...

Howard said...

No Achilles. It's you people who are the child abusers making masks a big deal. They pick up on your fearful anxiety and adopt that. If you had any brains, you would make kids anti-fragile and the masks would be a nothing burger. Instead you have followed Bone Spurs down the pussy hole.

Nobody believes any of your garbage.

You are just trying to ignore all of the actual science showing that your stupid masks are damaging kids language and communication development.

You are just terrible people.

tim maguire said...

The children of affluent parents who work from home will have much less mask time than the children of working class parents who cannot. So of course the smart set will conclude that masking children is not a big deal.

RigelDog said...

Howard said...

An even bigger impediment to kids gaining language skills is watching lame, cheaply made cartoon videos. This produces mush mouth talking that is very common throughout America over the last several decades since the vcr has replaced active parenting.}}}}

OK I normally avoid commenting negatively on other's posts but this is just too much to ignore. Really, Howard? REALLY?? How can you post something so awful?

You know what else is a big impediment to kids gaining language skills? Refusing to talk to them. There are some parents who are so clueless or abusive that they hurt their kids this way. There are kids who are beaten if they make noise or say something their parents don't like. I also know a girl whose seriously handicapped single-parent mother (cerebral palsy) bravely gave her up for adoption as a toddler because her daughter wasn't developing normally with a mom in a wheelchair whose speech was very impaired. To this day, her now-adult daughter is deficient in language skills.

But by all means, let's deliberately handicap a broad swath of our young by requiring useless masks for pre-schoolers.

Bob Boyd said...

The Lone Ranger's kids had a lot of problems IIRC. They could talk fine, but they grew up to feel like no one knew who they really were. Drug abuse, promiscuity, run-ins with the sheriff, no kemosabes, etc. Very sad.

Paddy O said...

"There has never been a good reason to isolate and mask children."

It wasn't for the children. It was for the sake of the teachers, who depending on their age/condition do have a much higher concern for COVID effects early on. Teachers get everything their kids bring in anyhow (as do the parents of school age kids who bring it back from school)

Whether that's a sufficient reason for masking kids is certainly debatable, and I'm excited my SoCal kids won't be wearing masks after this upcoming week, but if we see the mask issue about the adults in education not the kids, it definitely makes more sense.

The trouble is that the discussions on this are trapped in the conventional "it's for the children" arguments that used to be helpful. I wish people would just be honest and say that it's for the teachers and admins.

Jamie said...

The premise is that young children's plastic brains enable them to adjust to a wide range of circumstances. Fair enough: they'll be "programmed" to pay more attention to the expressive parts of the upper half of the face, like the eyes and eyebrows. But they won't learn as effectively, at this crucial moment in their development, how to read the very expressive lower half of the face, or to interpret tone of voice as clearly since masks muffle it, or to express themselves as clearly using tone and full facial expressions.

Babies mimic facial expressions, and babbling mimics tone of voice - a babbling baby appears to be carrying on a conversation, just not one we can understand fully because the words aren't yet being formed. We've known these things for a very long time. It's ludicrous to claim that because young children can adapt to this bad condition, that it leaves no deficit. It's like saying that because a child who can't use her legs can still get around by pulling herself on her arms (my husband's aunt was adept at this when she was alive, having been paralyzed in an operation as a child), that child is every bit as functional and developed as a child with use of all her limbs.

Of course it's fashionable to make this general claim about disabilities now - that they don't actually disable you in any way - but don't we all know it isn't true, even when we kindly or piously mouth the words?

MikeR said...

Every actual teacher I've spoken to told me about the major struggles they have had at the beginning of the school year. They can't tell what the kids are thinking, and the kids are in the same boat.

Meade said...

“ Drug abuse, promiscuity, run-ins with the sheriff, no kemosabes, etc. Very sad.”

Exactly. What do you mean “we,” child of masked man?

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

we could fix this.

Democrat elites who rule Colorado just voted to allow anyone to kill a full term baby!

Fernandinande said...

Simple solution: make the kids wear blindfolds so they can't tell if other people are wearing masks.

n.n said...

The very masks that break even at best, and increase infections in general use, in the general population. A forward-looking rationalization in the "some, select, every child left behind" series.

n.n said...

make the kids wear blindfolds so they can't tell if other people are wearing masks

Yes, the eyes are a window to viral and social contagion, so the precautionary principle advises that people should be steered to wear painted googles... goggles with blinders. That said, with respiratory viruses and other pathogens present and arriving, people who follow the principle would be do well to follow a consistent, reconcilable path wherever the penumbras and emanations may lead them. Follow the cargo cult, believe in the experts, not the science.

Jokah Macpherson said...

Do blind kids learn to speak?

Richard Dillman said...

Anyone who has had children or been around children know that they learn language in diverse ways, not just through sound. Learning language/communication is holistic and multi-dimensional . Of course, it involves lip reading, but it also involves facial expressions, body movements, tone, voice quality, volume,etc. Masks obscure most of these dimensions. This professor is engaging in CYA gaslighting. Childhood does not get a do-over. The long term results of these draconian masking policies will be revealed slowly, and they will be with us for at least a generation. I would rather see research conducted by agenda free linguists specializing in language learning rather than a professor of communication studies, if such linguists exist. One final question: how can speech therapy with masked young children be effective? One potential result of this gratuitous masking, may be a significant increase in demand for speech therapy.

Michael K said...

They pick up on your fearful anxiety and adopt that.

Howard, speaking for the leftists who locked down the economy and require masks for a virus with a less then influenza risk thinks they are the brave ones ? The SJW college students who are triggered by a conservative student sign on campus are the courageous ones ?

Howard, you need a new shtick.

Dude1394 said...

And of course no interview with an ACTUAL language physician. Who have seen an avalanche of kids being sent to them with language difficulties.
It would be easy to check , they just do not want to. Liars and very evil people actually.

Interested Bystander said...

This is off topic:

Something is off about how your blog looks in my browser. Everything appears to be about 1/4 the normal size and centered in a large amount of white space. I was going to post a screen grab of what it looks like but apparently that's not possible. Any ideas? I'm using the Brave browser. Maybe it's distorting the appearance. But its' only happening on your site, Dr. Althouse.

J. Farmer said...

Research has shown babies who pay attention to people’s mouths as they talk have better language skills when they’re older.

Gaze-following and attention to the mouth in infancy are predictive of productive vocabulary. What relationship these variables have to each other is purely conjecture. The development of human speech production in infancy is a very poorly understood process.

Iman said...

By Thor’s mighty hammer, by the suns of Warvan, you shall be made to eat your words, Howard, as the hound eats its own droppings.

Browndog said...

NYC mayor Eric Adams is lifting the mask mandate for everyone!

Except...

Mayor Eric Adams

Masks will continue to be required for all settings with children under 5 years of age, including programs contracted by the New York City Department of Education with 3- and 4-year-old children as well as 3K and 4K classrooms in district schools.
2:31 PM · Mar 4, 2022


Yes, this is how utterly fucked up democrats are. Hope they rot in hell.

wildswan said...

To: Interested Bystander

At the top right end of the URL bar are three vertical dots. Click here and you can see how your page is zoomed. You may have shrunk it down. e.g. 50% when it should be 100%

farmgirl said...

“ They pick up on your fearful anxiety and adopt that.”

B/c wearing a mask doesn’t promote fear of a virus- or anything…

Jamie said...

Do blind kids learn to speak?

Do blind kids learn to interpret facial expressions?

Is all communication auditory?

Do facial expressions facilitate communication?

For God's sake. I spent most of my life nearsighted. Did I learn visually, before getting glasses at age 8? Yes. Did I learn better, visually, once I could see across a room? Yes. Yeah, you can hear a smile in someone's voice. But what if the person is only smiling, not speaking? Yeah, it's hackles-raising when someone has "dead eyes." But it's absolutely flight-inducing when the person with dead eyes is smiling. Blind people are operating at a deficit with regard to full communication, just as deaf people are. It's not a judgment against them; it's an unfortunate circumstance they have to deal with.

Can you seriously argue against the fact that something is lost when the face is partly or entirely obscured?

Hammond X. Gritzkofe said...

Bob Boyd said...

The Lone Ranger's kids had a lot of problems IIRC. They could talk fine, but they grew up to feel like no one knew who they really were. Drug abuse, promiscuity, run-ins with the sheriff, no kemosabes, etc. Very sad.

Was gonna make some wise-ass retort about your expertise should be Hopalong Cassidy not Lone Ranger, but I see checking Wikipedia that was Bill Boyd. An uncle maybe?

Kai Akker said...

--- Forcing vaccines on kids is immoral when the mRNA “vaccine” has no long-term trials to tell us the dangers we might be thrusting upon them. [MJB Wolf]

We know a lot more now than earlier. They are frightened to admit it, because so much of it is bad. Here is a good up-to-date roundup of things we have learned. It sounds to me like Pfizer could be in serious trouble; Moderna maybe worse.

.... The FDA on Tuesday released a large tranche of Pfizer clinical trials documents in response to a Freedom of Information (FOIA) request by the Public Health and Medical Professionals for Transparency. The documents show that the company knew people were at risk of experiencing more than 1,000 unique adverse side-effects to the mRNA injections.

....Additionally, scientists last week revealed that Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine can enter human liver cells and be converted into DNA—something the fact-checkers and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control assured the public could never happen. Scientists also recently discovered that a sequence of genetic material patented by Moderna in 2018 bears a suspicious similarity to the spike protein in Sars-Cov2.

....And a new study published on March 2 found that the synthetic mRNA found in the vaccines does not degrade quickly as promised, but continues to produce spike proteins for nearly two weeks.

https://amgreatness.com/2022/03/04/covid-vaccine-bombshells-you-probably-didnt-hear-about/

Big Mike said...

“Could be overcome.” Maybe. Or maybe not. Or maybe for most kids but not for some of the most disadvantaged. Not that anyone in the educational establishment actually cares about the disadvantaged, except that they can create more job opportunities for for drones.

Static Ping said...

When you have convinced yourself that you are righteous, you can excuse just about anything. WaPo is more than happy to absolve its readership of its "non-existent" sins. Masking is just one of the many services it provides in its portfolio.

In a day of widespread politicized science, when the claim is studies are sparse and the few that we have confirm what the "good" people want to believe, the standard interpretation of this is researchers are being funded to provide the results the funders want and studies that find the opposite result are being suppressed or withheld. We live in a day when it is wise to believe in conspiracy theories because the conspiracists have come out into the open and are hoping you haven't noticed.

FullMoon said...

Iman said...

By Thor’s mighty hammer, by the suns of Warvan, you shall be made to eat your words, Howard, as the hound eats its own droppings.


Damn, that is so funny I read it several times.

Howard is just messin' with us normal people. Ya hafta imagine him at the kitchen table telling his partner "Watch this" whenever he posts something.

Naturally, most of the retorts are also in jest.

gilbar said...

when the claim is studies are sparse and the few that we have confirm what the "good" people want to believe, the standard interpretation of this is researchers are being funded to provide the results the funders want and studies that find the opposite result are being suppressed or withheld

I used to laugh,
when reading about Galileo or Lysenko; and i'd think: Man those ignorant people were ignorant
Now, i look at today; and i realize that Not Much has changed. Follow the money/power

J. Farmer said...

@Jamie:

Do facial expressions facilitate communication?

I agree. The ability to read facial expressions and to follow eye gazes is an important part of communication, social interaction, and emotional development.

Can you seriously argue against the fact that something is lost when the face is partly or entirely obscured?

Perhaps if a child was only exposed to partly or entirely obscured faces. But the faces to which an in infants is most attuned are the faces of primary caregivers, which of course would not be obscured by a mask.

Bob Boyd said...

Hopalong Cassidy...was that the guy who played the gimp heart throb in The Partridge Family?

Jim at said...

Just wait until it's determined masks did cause long-term harm.
Just wait until it's determined the 'vaccines' have long-term negative impacts.

And just wait until those who've been pushing this bullshit for the last two years ... suddenly claim they were against it the entire time.

Achilles said...

Jamie said...

Can you seriously argue against the fact that something is lost when the face is partly or entirely obscured?

There is a reason Muslim cultures and some other cultures force women to cover their face.

It places people outside the group.

The goal of mask mandates was always to divide and separate.

There was never any actual scientific evidence masks did anything to stop the spread of COVID and all of the meta analysis shows that mask mandates had no effect.

The people that pushed it need to be humiliated.

I think they should be forced to cover their face in public for a few decades.

Greg The Class Traitor said...

There's an understandable effort to assure parents that there children are not being damaged by masks

Yes, it's "understandable" that pro-masking lunatics are going to lie to parents.

Reality: The Biden CDC just took a severe cut to "what do we expect developing children to be able to do", because children developing in a land of masks are developing poorly

"Being deprived of seeing half of the face could be overcome precisely because of that brain plasticity. Babies and young children are far more adaptable to their changing conditions in the world than we are as adults."

That is so wrong it's evil.

That plasticity means they're far easier to warp and damage than are older people.

That plasticity is why you have to try to give them teh best, as soon as they can.

David Lewkowicz is a sick, twisted, evil monster

Greg The Class Traitor said...

J. Farmer said...
Perhaps if a child was only exposed to partly or entirely obscured faces

No, then they're just crippled for life

J. Farmer said...

@Static Ping:

When you have convinced yourself that you are righteous, you can excuse just about anything. WaPo is more than happy to absolve its readership of its "non-existent" sins. Masking is just one of the many services it provides in its portfolio.

Indeed. For example, over the last two decades, the US government has unleashed massive violence and destruction on a global scale, destroyed three sovereign governments, attempted to destroy two more, got hundreds of thousands of people killed, and turned millions into refugees. As Madeline Albright once remarked, "But if we have to use force, it is because we are America; we are the indispensable nation. We stand tall and we see further than other countries into the future, and we see the danger here to all of us."

Michelle Dulak Thomson said...

Ann,

There's an understandable effort to assure parents that there children are not being damaged by masks

I think the "there" is meant to be "their." Fix?

J. Farmer said...

@Greg The Class Traitor:

Reality: The Biden CDC just took a severe cut to "what do we expect developing children to be able to do", because children developing in a land of masks are developing poorly.

Reality: The CDC did no such thing. See Evidence-Informed Milestones for Developmental Surveillance Tools (08 Feb 2022). Also see Quantitative Evaluation of Content and Age Concordance Across Developmental Milestone Checklists (2019), Evidence-based milestone ages as a framework for developmental surveillance (2012), and Use of Developmental Milestones in Pediatric Residency Training and Practice: Time to Rethink the Meaning of the Mean (2007).

Michael K said...

Farmer is now our expert on childr4n and child development.

Assistant Village Idiot said...

Show me numbers. Until then it is just people pearl-clutching and confirming their previous biases with anecdotes. Preliminary numbers are fine, so long as we see them for what they are.

I thought I was a conservative, but they have gone insane recently. Children have gone through f-in' wars, migrations, isolation in tiny communities or on farms, grinding poverty, and horrible traumas, with little or no measurable language effects.

The behavior of traumatised children as adults was part of how I made my living for 40 years, thanks. I am not just making this up. Brief interruptions are not a big deal, even when horrendous. They just aren't. Deal with it. Your desire to prove that our children have all been ruined by the government health measures, which were mere additions to what people were voluntarily doing anyway, does not yet have data to support it. It doesn't. There are suggestions, and maybe it will prove out. But sweet Jesus, read some biographies, willya?

Jokah Macpherson said...

AVI is right. Kids (and people) are resilient. I agree the mask situation as it currently exists is silly but it’s not going to do any long term damage.

Gemna said...

This article says there's not a problem with masks, but does note delays in young children since pandemic began. At first, they were looking to see if Covid infection of mother affected infants, but the data showed delays regardless. My interpretation, it may not be masks or any one factor alone, but a cumulative effect.

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-00027-4?utm_source=pocket_mylist

n.n said...

Learning and socialization impairment are two issues. Another is that masks are not scientifically and physically supported to prevent infection and transmission of submicron particles through aerosol and fecal transmission. Also, unless following strict protocol: construction, use, and disposal, masks act as portable petri dishes and viral collectors, multiplying the risk of infection and transmission in trained population, and more so in the general population.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

The harm to kids is misinformation. Kids are going to be fine. The vaccines given to kids are fine and effective. Dr Fauci is fine. Nothing to see here.

effinayright said...

"But sweet Jesus, read some biographies, willya?"
**************

I'd rather you offer some double-blind peer reviewed scientific studies.

Got any?

"How I overcame X" bios are nothing but anecdotes.

In any case, deliberately subjecting children to suffering without medical necessity is child abuse.

J. Farmer said...

@Michael K:

Farmer is now our expert on childr4n and child development.

Whether I am or not makes no difference to the accuracy of anything I said. Insulting someone for having an opinion you don't like isn't a retort. It's a whinge.

For what it's worth, my career of the last 20 years involved forensic evaluation of juvenile justice and child protective services populations and am a provider of competency to proceed evaluations for the Agency for Persons with Disabilities (APD).

ColoradoJim said...

I know that deaf children absolutely will be severely affected by having to wear masks as I grew up having to lip read. It also affects the making of sounds as the teacher has to show how to make certain sounds. With masks I cannot see how they can learn.

pacwest said...

You want happy secure children that know they are loved? Grandchildren? Smile and laugh with them as often possible.

FullMoon said...

I'm gonna say it again. If ya wanna argue with Farmer, make a big pot of coffee and be prepared to go all night.

And, be prepared to back up opinion with fact.

Browndog said...

but it’s not going to do any long term damage.

And to think you said that with a straight face.

Dave Begley said...

Bill Barr pimping his book on Brett Baer’s show on Monday.

I hate disloyalty. Scum. And you never see the Dems doing this. Never.

pious agnostic said...

Awful lot of people who have been in therapy for years to overcome some sort of childhood trauma are telling me how tough and resilient children are....

Real American said...

This isn't about reassurance. It's CYA. They've damaged a lot of children with their mask fetish.

Greg The Class Traitor said...

Blogger Assistant Village Idiot said...
Show me numbers.

You were showed the numbers.
Blogger Mark said at 3/6/22, 9:57 AM


Meanwhile, the CDC recently lowered the language development in expectations their Children's Developmental Milestones. "One of the biggest CDC developmental milestone changes involves language development. With this revision, the CDC delayed speech and language milestones to older ages. Before, the CDC suggested a 24-month-old would say an average of 50 words, but the new guidelines say a 30-month-old should have a vocabulary of 50 words."

https://www.parents.com/toddlers-preschoolers/development/behavioral/everything-parents-need-to-know-about-the-updated-cdc-guidelines-on-developmental-milestones/#:~:text=One%20of%20the%20biggest%20CDC%20developmental%20milestone%20changes,30-month-old%20should%20have%20a%20vocabulary%20of%2050%20words.

News flash: The CDC isn't doing that because right-wing infiltrators got them to make the changes to make the maskers look bad.

They're doing that because the masking, the lockdown, the "remote education" have all completely fucked over the kids, and by "the kids" I mean under 18.

Because the educational failures hav been harsh at every level

boatbuilder said...

Also "probably" not causing any psychological or emotional damage to children: Telling them that they are morally inferior, or morally superior, to other children because of their skin color.

Evil stuff.

If babies cannot understand the words their parents are saying (they can't), and cannot see the expressions on their parents' faces, they are largely deprived of basic communication--how do they learn? And what do they learn?

But nothing to worry about, no big deal.

J. Farmer said...

@Greg The Class Traitor:

News flash: The CDC isn't doing that because right-wing infiltrators got them to make the changes to make the maskers look bad.

They're doing that because the masking, the lockdown, the "remote education" have all completely fucked over the kids, and by "the kids" I mean under 18.


With all due respect, you don't know what the hell you're talking about. The most substantial change is moving the milestones from the 50th percentile to the 75th percentile. Milestone checklists are, at best, screening tools and cannot conceal profound developmental delays, which are typically defined as below the 5th percentile. The 15 and 30 month checklists were added in order to coincide with the number of well checkups from age 2 months to 5 years.

The CDC's developmental milestones checklists aren't even the primary means of screening for developmental disorders. There are numerous standardized and validated screening instruments (e.g. Child Development Inventory, Parents' Evaluation of Developmental Status, Bayley Infant Neurodevelopmental Screener, etc.).

J. Farmer said...

@boatbuilder:

If babies cannot understand the words their parents are saying (they can't), and cannot see the expressions on their parents' faces, they are largely deprived of basic communication--how do they learn? And what do they learn?

But nothing to worry about, no big deal.


The issue brought up in the article was masked caregivers in day care settings. Parents aren't wearing masks at home around their children.

Mazo Jeff said...

Just returned from the Cell phone store. While no masks involved, Sat in a plexiglass cubicle as did the customer service representative. I could not hear him and, because of the reflection of the sun coming through the window, I could not see him. WHEN IS THIS MADNESS GOING TO STOP!!

David Begley, as a Creighton graduate, I have a question. How do the Jesuits drink their beer with the mask on!!

Robert Cook said...

"The masking of young children and our masking ourselves around them is just fucking evil given the circumstances."

I know it makes you feel good to say this, but how is it "fucking evil?" Is it evil to expect adults and children adhere to other social requirements, (such as wearing clothing)?

Anthony said...

The issue isn't whether masks do anything bad for children, it's that there's no evidence they do anything good either. They don't. Period. It's all potential cost with no benefit.

>>the few studies that do exist suggest

That's weaselly academicese to provide minimal support for what you want.

Greg The Class Traitor said...

J. Farmer said...
With all due respect, you don't know what the hell you're talking about. The most substantial change is moving the milestones from the 50th percentile to the 75th percentile. Milestone checklists are, at best, screening tools and cannot conceal profound developmental delays

Ah, so the masking isn't causing any problems until it causes "profound developmental delays" in a significant part of teh child population?

So, how many have to have the lives destroyed? Take the 5% to 10%? is that enough

How about if child development is "just" shifted downward 10% over a broad range? Is that enough?

Or is that no big deal compared to the horror of offending the teachers union?

There's not one single study that shows masking children or the adults around them does any good. The CDC keeps on clinging to the totally shit Arizona study because they don't have anything else.

How many lives have to be destroyed, minds damaged, before you're ready to stop the child abuse?

jg said...

This explains the new official CDC 2/8/22 guidance that normal infants should start talking at 15 mo (not 12 mo).

Kirk Parker said...

Paddy O,

"Teachers get everything their kids bring in anyhow"

So how in the world have teachers managed to survive before now? If you really are 75 with several comorbidities, maybe it's time to retire from the classroom?