Has two years of masking hurt our kids? Here’s what experts say

Rishi Ramberran’s children were ages 11, nine and five when the COVID-19 pandemic first began.

When masks became mandatory, it was a no-brainer for the family of five.

“My father was very ill during COVID and he had a lung disease, so our family just put him as a priority. … We all just wore masks and that was that,” the Winnipeg father of three explained.

“Initially it was cool. We got some pretty cool masks. They liked it.”

But like so many other parents, two years on, Ramberran wonders, how has masking affected them, if at all?

“As humans, we thrive on interaction,” Ramberran said. “So much of that is facial recognition and playing off each other’s faces. How do you know if the person is surprised, angry or sad if we can’t see half of their face?”

There are growing calls from some politicians and parents for mask mandates to end, especially when you are talking about kids.

Some provinces are already making moves to ditch them.

In Alberta, children 12 and under don’t have to wear masks in any setting and students in schools were no longer required to wear face coverings either.

But has the damage been done — and are there genuine physical, psychological or developmental consequences?

Experts told Global News there is no proof of that, though many have expressed concern.

“Children do have access to all these other cues that they use to infer other people’s emotions,” Michele Morningstar, an assistant professor in the department of psychology at Queen’s University, told Global News.

She said they listen for tone, and can read posture and gestures.

A study by Dr. Ashley Ruba, a developmental psychology researcher at the University of Washington, found masks aren’t hurting kids developmentally.

She had kids aged seven to 12 look at pictures of people making different faces: with just a mask on; with just sunglasses on; and unobscured.

The results?

Masks didn’t negatively impact children’s ability to read emotions any more than other face coverings, like sunglasses, did.

“Having something in front of your mouth — whether that’s your hand, whether that’s a scarf or mask — it’s going to make it harder for other people to hear what you’re saying,” Morningstar told Global News.

“The intelligibility definitely seems to be lower. But I actually don’t know of any research that shows that this would impede the ability to pick up on emotion in the voice.”

Dr. Scott Hadland, chief of adolescent medicine at Mass General Hospital for Children, is a father himself. He said he can sympathize with parents frustrations over masks and understands why they would be concerned, but the evidence against them isn’t there.

“Right now, there are no data to suggest that there are any short-term or long-term harms when it comes to masks and kids, and that includes both psychological harms and physical harms,” he said.

A small-scale Italian study from 2021 revealed that with 47 infants and young children wearing surgical face masks for 30 minutes, there were no changes in how they were able to breathe and no signs of respiratory distress.

“I think some people have raised incorrect concerns that levels of carbon dioxide would be high in kids if they were wearing masks because they wouldn’t be able to breathe it off. You know this these sorts of concerns really haven’t been borne out in the studies,” Hadland said, referring to online misinformation.

The Hanen Centre in Toronto, specializes in language, social and literacy skills in young children. Director Janice Greenberg heard the concerns over masks early on but she said kids aren’t always exposed to covered mouths.

“Our educators are in masks, in an early childhood setting they wear masks, in public they were masks, but they’re not wearing them when they are at home,” she said. “So, hopefully, children are still getting lots of good interactions from parents.”

Greenberg is concerned children who suffer from a speech delay may be disproportionally affected but added there are ways to foster skills with a mask on.

Speak loudly, wear a clear mask, stand closer to a child when talking and verbalize your emotion, Greenberg said.

While Health Canada doesn’t address the issues, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control reported limited data indicates “no clear evidence that masking impairs emotional or language development in children.”

The key words are “limited data.” Since it’s only been two years inside the pandemic, we don’t have the long-term studies required.

And even if we did, the experts Global News spoke with said isolation, social distancing, lockdowns, school closures and COVID-induced stress and anxiety could muddy the research waters.

“There’s reason to think that this is a flexible learning period for children,” Morningstar said.

“Though there might be some impact, it might not be as long-lasting as we might fear, just given (the) research on the malleability of (children).”

A study from B.C. in late 2021 found that in the era of variants of concern, there was low transmission of COVID-19 in K-12 age kids in Vancouver with communicable disease prevention measures like a mask.

Hadland said that until vaccines become available for the youngest cohorts, masking still has a role to play in COVID-protection for kids.

It also protects kids who can’t wear masks, for example, because of disabilities.

Back at their home in Winnipeg, Rishi Ramberran’s daughter, Krishana, who is now 14, has a growing mask collection.

She said while the face-covering can be annoying, she doesn’t think it’s really affected her or her siblings.

“It bugged us a little but other than that, it was pretty regular,” she said.