I was recently watching my toddler giggle in reaction to a silly face that my husband made, and it occurred to me that come September, he will spend a large portion of his day in an environment where all the adults around him will be wearing face masks. As someone who is only just beginning to grasp the concepts of emotional cues and language skills (both of which are tied to facial expressions), what will face-mask wearing mean for my son’s development? Is there something that caregivers, teachers and parents can do to make this weird reality for little people less weird? In other words...Is my kid doomed to have the emotional intelligence of a cyborg?
Short answer, no.
“Development during early childhood demonstrates considerable plasticity, and ‘blips’ like this pandemic (even though this is a much longer blip than anyone had anticipated) are recoverable through their resilience,” says Dr. Erin Mueller, a psychologist and senior researcher at Parent Lab. Phew.
Kids are naturally pretty resilient, but there are also simple ways you can nurture this important skill.