Dear MEL Topic Readers,
Should young children be made to wear face masks?
Just like adults, children are required or recommended to wear a mask at school in some countries like France and Italy while they are free from wearing a mask in other places like the UK. It is evident that much fewer cases have been reported in schools where teachers and students are required to wear masks as they provide an additional layer of protection. However, some people are concerned that mask-wearing could impair children’s development of emotional understanding. In fact, children start recognizing basic emotions such as happiness, sadness, fear, and anger from voice tone, body posture, and facial expression even before they begin walking. So, if half of the face is covered by a mask, how can they recognize others’ emotions? But is it that different from wearing sunglasses? Interestingly, a study found that the difference between wearing a mask and sunglasses didn’t show any distinct difference to recognize the emotion of the wearer. Then what about language learning?
Enjoy reading the article and learning about what impacts mask-wearing could cause to young children.
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20211025-how-face-masks-affect-young-children
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