Did Mask Mandates Harm Kids? CDC Lowers Expectations for Speech Development

Throughout the nation, mask mandates have begun to be lifted and people are finally able to breath again. However the relief pales in comparison to the cost. Just months into the pandemic, multiple studies and research from venerable institutions proved that wearing masks was not massively successful against the transmission of the virus.

In spite of all of that, liberal and far left radicals made it their mission to enforce mask mandates in every place they had the authority to. While it was an inconvenience to many, it seems that research is emerging that proves it was the most harmful to our children.

To them, it was not just an inconvenience but a hazard and detriment to their growth and development. For years, many American children have been forced to wear a mask for the majority of their day. From classrooms, outdoor activities and even going shopping, we are talking about hours of limited oxygen every single day.

More research needs to be done but certain health professionals are already sounding the alarm about the harm mask mandates have caused our children.

It seems that the CDC is aware of this and has already tried to cover their mess and wrongdoings. Maija C. Hahn, M.S., CCC-SLP, a specialist in the field of childhood development has written a piece for The Defender about this subject. In it she exposes the sneaky way the CDC has been trying to hide their mistake.

Last month, the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC) issued new developmental language standards for American children. The updated guidance states that a 2-and-a-half-year-old child is now expected to say only 50 words.

This is a massive reduction in cognitive expectation for that age group from just a few years ago.

Children over age 2 are expected to have huge verbal vocabularies. They should have a word for almost everything in their environment.

Two-and-a-half-year-olds are expected to be using multiple 2+word to 3+word phrases and even merging into full sentences.

Now, the practice of “dumbing down” educational expectations is nothing new. The government continually does this to help mask our failing educational system that is shortchanging our children. Have you ever wondered about the Left’s fascination with Common Core math?

It’s a shell game because if your education and your children’s were measured apples to apples, you would see the problem. That’s why they had to change your kid’s apple into a pear, also known as Common Core.

If the CDC is seeing a significant decrease in pediatric language acquisition, agency officials need to be asking why — instead of simply changing the standard expectations.

Yet this isn’t new for the CDC. The CDC has been changing IQ standards and student testing outcomes for years. American children are getting dumber and dumber, with more learning disabilities, and more health issues (54% of American children suffer from  a chronic disease … but I will save that for another article.)

The problem we are facing now is much more drastic than in any other decade. There was a severe drop in speech and language among children in the years 2020 and 2021. Evidence is pointing to the fact it could have been the child mask mandates.

Let’s start by asking: Why the sudden change in speech and language in 2021-2022?

We can only assume the national implementation of mask mandates for the past two years has much to do with our current situation.

Health advocates have been pressing the CDC for years about the dangers of requiring children to wear masks. The American Speech and Hearing Association even weighed in.

The American Speech and Hearing Association wrote letters to the CDC expressing concern about the potential negative impact of masks on speech and language, but unfortunately, the CDC didn’t waiver.

Apparently, the CDC felt such harms didn’t outweigh the disinformation agenda that masks stop the spread of SARS-COV-2. (There are decades of scientific research demonstrating masks don’t stop the spread of aerosolized viral particles.)

There are a host of issues these mandates have had especially when it comes to children’s speech and language.

Children learn through watching and hearing. Masking hinders both of these learning modalities. Children need to see the mouths of their parents, teachers and peers.

Furthermore, masked peers and teachers impede aural learning. Speech and language development is significantly impacted when a child cannot see or hear all of the speech sounds being muffled by mask wearers. The developmental speech and language window is vital in developing appropriate communication skills and can impact a child’s education for years.

Worse, it has even affected the way our children learn to breath oxygen which then has further impact on their brain development. It may even require surgical reconstruction when they get older.

A mask may impede this transition in multiple ways. Masks reduce oxygen intake and often cause the wearer to breathe from the mouth instead of the nose in order to take in as much oxygen as possible. Mouth breathing in pediatric oral development is very problematic, and often speech-language pathologists spend years working with patients attempting to remedy this problem.

Mouth breathing leads to a low tongue resting position, which is the precursor to many speech, articulation and swallowing disorders. Mouth breathing can even cause jaw malformations and long-term oral and swallowing dysfunction that only surgical reconstruction can rectify.

The list of problems and damage this mask mandate has caused is extremely long and expands daily. And what was the sense in it all? The reality is that evidence points to the fact that the CDC decided to sacrifice the lives of our children for the sake of a liberal agenda. That’s the way it always is with tyranny, those that can’t defend or speak for themselves are the ones that have to pay the price.

The crime is that there are school districts that have yet to lift their mask requirements.

You can read the full article with the list of developmental damages HERE