Could wearing a mask slow your child’s speech and language development? – CBC

The impact ‘may not be as great as we think’

Apr 07, 2022

As New Brunswick’s education and health departments continue to deflect responsibility for re-imposing masks in schools, the province’s chief medical officer of health made note of a seemingly high percentage of preschoolers with communication issues.

Earlier this week, when asked about re-introducing mandatory masking in schools, Dr. Jennifer Russell said she takes a number of things into consideration.

“We recently learned that 17.9 per cent of students entering kindergarten have communication difficulties right now, and that’s as a result of data from the early years assessment,” she said.

But are masks causing speech and language delays in children?

“Anecdotally, yes, we’re hearing teachers and speech-language pathologists are reporting that there seem to be many more children with speech-language and communication needs,” said Caroline Erdos, a speech-language adviser for Speech-Language and Audiology Canada (SAC)

Read more: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/do-masks-cause-speech-delays-1.6412266