When it comes to preventing COVID in our schools, masks have been touted as one of the best solutions. With children under 5 still being unprotected by vaccines, and children over 5 only recently being able to get vaccinated, children’s vulnerability to COVID is a very real concern for many parents, especially when it comes to children spending an entire day with many other students in an indoor setting.
But it’s not quite so simple as a unilateral mask mandate for schools. We are becoming very familiar, societally, with the many real and valid concerns over shutting down schools in response to COVID. The detrimental consequences to families and students over many school shutdowns are not insignificant and include interrupted or even halted education, loss of access to school meals, gaps in childcare, social isolation, and far more.
For all children, masks can impact learning and emotional development, and the WHO warns to not require masks during physical activity for children for health concerns. For children with special needs–whether that be children with autism, hearing loss, or sensory issues–the negative effects of masks can be even more significant.
We spoke with several educators and parents on their concerns, and their thoughts reflect the nuances that are necessary when considering how to address masking in schools.
Abby Flowers–a local former teacher who was still in education when COVID-19 hit the schools, and is a mom of two young children–has a one-year-old son who has progressive hearing loss and was notably negatively impacted by school mask mandates. Abby shares, “I was very concerned about his language development, being around masked adults the majority of the day. Once we left the school (to homeschool instead), his language progressed really rapidly, and that’s in part because he was around me unmasked most of the day instead of his masked teachers.”
Abby reflects that it was hard to do language work in the preschool and kindergarten class, for both children with speech concerns and those with typical speech development: “For example, it’s hard to show a child how to make the sound ‘n’ instead of ‘m’ if they can’t see your mouth.”
Abby’s perspective highlights the complexities of mask mandates: “It’s so difficult because while I think masks hurt more than they help for my own child, for someone whose child is, for example, immunocompromised, masks provide way more benefit than risk. There’s just not an easy answer.”
Joy, a local homeschool support group education administrator, has also seen detrimental effects of masking children in general, and that special needs children often have added difficulties. “Children with sensory processing disorder, speech delays, difficulty hearing, and children on the autism spectrum can all experience extra challenges masking,” she says. “Among the common difficulties of extended mask wearing are understanding how to properly and consistently wear the mask, experiencing difficulty speaking, hearing, and interpreting facial expressions (for both student and teacher), and using the mask to emotionally withdraw or isolate. This can result in greatly impaired communication, emotional and mental development, and impaired learning overall, especially for our youngest students and those with special needs.”
Another local teacher and mom, Rachel, found masks to be helpful for her son, who has generalized anxiety disorder, depression, and several learning difficulties. She notes, “We kept him in school throughout the pandemic, when Ann Arbor Academy was one of the only schools open. They were very, very careful with their protocols and masking was/is a big part of that. Careful and considerate mask wearing is the only thing that allowed him to attend school comfortably. He was very worried and anxious about Covid, and wearing a mask is one way that he felt he could protect himself. He would feel very upset with other children if they were not as fastidious with their masks.”
Rachel also noted some positive impacts on her son’s social experiences: “ I think the mask also eases some social awkwardness for him and kids like him. He can, in effect, ‘hide’ behind his mask. I am so grateful that A2 Academy created an environment that made him (relatively) comfortable, although I do worry that as things seem to improve, he will have a very difficult time moving away from wearing a mask.”
Joy and Rachel both note that children can use masks to emotionally withdraw or hide, and show that there are both positives and negatives to such a thing–again emphasizing the gradations in masking discussions.
Marquise Griffin, a doctoral student pursuing a joint PhD in English and Education, feels the pandemic has exacerbated these preexisting barriers and inequalities; he is Deaf and wears hearing aids, and has experienced the difficulties of masks firsthand even as an adult: “Wearing masks muffles the voice and covers the lips, making it harder to both hear and lip read what someone is saying. I’ve tried clear masks with limited success since they fog up, in the same way as glasses. Plus they don’t remedy the muffled voice unless I’m within about 3 feet of the person who’s speaking. I understand the necessity of masks given what the available data has demonstrated about their ability to limit the spread of COVID, but I also look forward to when masks are no longer required for our safety.” Even as an adult with full comprehension of the English language, masks cause a daily struggle. How much more so for young children who are still learning how to speak and communicate!
Marquise spends a lot of time in his field considering how these language skills could be more accessible: “Educational systems need to elevate and incorporate the variety of ways in which we communicate. I believe this also demonstrates one of the ways in which education needs to accommodate Deaf, hard of hearing, and non-verbal people or those who might otherwise find it challenging to speak. If sign language was more universal and if everyone has some basic knowledge of ASL, I think the mask mandate would not be nearly so difficult for me. I believe curriculum developers should be taking the pandemic as an opportunity to create and implement more equitable and accessible skills in K-12 schools. Imagine a world where basically all schools are teaching kids sign language, starting in kindergarten.”
Such a world would certainly make things much easier for students who are hard of hearing, Deaf, or struggle to use their voice for other reasons (stutter, sensory issue, etc). Our sister publication, Toledo Parent, released an article on the impact of mask mandates on children with autism and an article of the struggles the Deaf community has faced with the prevalence of masks.
To be clear, many educators and parents are aware this is a nuanced issue. As Abby said, if a parent has an immunocompromised child, they are likely to find masks a net benefit, no matter what the additional educational or social impacts are. But for some parents, they may find the impediments a mask presents to their child’s growth to not be worth the health protection. And many experts have said that COVID seems to provide no more risk to children than the flu.
It’s worth noting that the European equivalent of the CDC actively recommends not masking for younger students, believing the cost to outweigh the benefits.
I am a former Montessori teacher myself, and I am immunocompromised. I both worry about COVID’s impact on families with similar health conditions, and I have personal educational experience with the importance of young children being able to see the full faces of their teachers and fellow students, and the various socioemotional and academic milestones that could be hindered or even halted by requiring masking universally. Much of the current conversation around masking in schools shows that masks can be helpful to prevent COVID, and detrimental in some ways to many children. Hopefully, recognizing that there are many sides to this issue can contribute to an empathetic conversation where all sides recognize and are supportive of the concerns of the others, and work together to find a solution that works best for each school district.
Current mask mandates in Washtenaw county schools: Ann Arbor Public Schools and many of the surrounding public schools have opted to continue the mask mandate for now: “Dexter Community Schools Superintendent Chris Timmis also noted the district’s plans were in place prior to the health department’s order, and are tied to transmission levels, with plans to revisit them after vaccinations became available for children 5 to 11.”
