On Sept. 10, 2020 in Utah, students wear masks as they are taught by a teacher.
GEORGE FREY/AFP via Getty ImagesA mask can obscure a smile, muffle a voice, and make lip reading impossible.
Lindsay Yazzolino, who is blind, says that those are minor obstacles.
She says that it is interesting to her how face-seeing is seen in so many contexts.
Yazzolino is confused by the debate over masks in the classroom.
Some parents worry that masks might interfere with their childrens ability to learn or socialize. Some parents fear that more COVID-19 cases will follow.
A growing body of research suggests that masks don't have a significant impact on speech or social skills.
Yazzolino, who is blind, is involved in some of that research. The human brain is good at finding a way to communicate and their ability to master language and social skills shows that.
Yazzolino has been blind since birth. She went to school with children who are blind.
She says she had a great experience in school. I enjoyed math and science.
She relied on her ability to read and write. It was difficult for her to get course materials in that format.
She says that social interactions were never a problem.
She says she used that as a cue because she hears emotion in people's voices.
The human brain is good at finding a way to communicate and that is what Yazzolino experienced.
Marina Bedny is an associate professor at the University of Baltimore who studies brain development in people who are blind.
People who are blind can use areas of the brain that are devoted to visual information.
She says that people who are blind have some superior abilities when it comes to understanding spoken sentences.
According to this research, children who are blind can adapt quickly to masks in the classroom.
Whether the person who is teaching them is wearing a mask is not something that would matter to a child.
There isn't much research to back that claim.
Children watch mouths and faces closely when learning to speak and read. It is not clear what happens when these visual cues are not available in the classroom.
Pandemic masking is not an obstacle to learning for children as young as 3 or 4 years old.
Lynn Perry is an associate professor in the psychology department at the University of Miami.
Since before COVID-19 arrived, a team led by Perry has been monitoring speech development in pre-school students. The students use a device to listen to their language.
The team compared a class from early 2020 with a class in 2021, when masks were required. There was no difference in the amount of language production.
The team found that the complexity of speech sounds was higher in children wearing masks.
The teachers may change the way they talk to make sure they are understood.
Half of the children in the study used hearing aids. The kids did well with masks, according to a PhD candidate at the University of Miami.
These results were particularly encouraging because these children with hearing loss benefit from early education programs.
The challenge for students with hard-of-hearing or deafness is posed by masks. The center has schools for children who use hearing aids.
The brain needs to work harder to process what is being said, especially for those who are acquiring American Sign Language, because facial expressions and mouth movements are an important part of signing.
The Clerc Center still encourages masking to protect vulnerable students despite the fact that teachers are now allowed to remove their masks during presentations. The center allows the use of clear masks or clear plastic shields for some interactions.
Students have adapted to mask requirements in other settings.
Stephen Camarata, a professor of speech and hearing sciences, says that the long-term impact of masking in schools is unclear.
He says that the idea of doingselective access to faces is not well-researched.
Camarata thinks most children won't have long-term effects from wearing masks. He is concerned about some students who have difficulty adapting to small changes in their environment.
Camarata says that when they go in the classroom and everything has changed, it is really disorienting. The result is a lack of learning.
The way in which the brain combines what it sees and what it hears is a problem for some children with the condition.
He says that children with the condition don't bind signals in the same way that typical children do.
It is like watching a movie where the soundtrack is out of sync. The problem is worse when the children are not able to see the teacher.
Camarata says that even a classroom with masks is better than virtual learning on a computer.
When you give a child an iPad, they tend to get into games that they like and play them over and over again, and they are missing other learning opportunities.
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