Speech therapist pleased to see masks come off for young children

With masks no longer required in Saskatchewan, a speech therapist believes face coverings may have contributed to speech delays for young children.

Kirsten Kelly is the owner of It’s a Speech Thing, which has clinics in Saskatoon and Calgary.

She said she completely understands why the mask mandate was in place, given the danger of COVID-19.

However, she admits there were some downsides for kids learning to talk.

“When you think about the speech sounds, so how you actually say a sound, then I think that may have had an impact, because they couldn’t see our mouths. So they couldn’t see where your tongue is, or how your lips are being shaped, so that could have a longer impact on speech sounds and eventually literacy,” she explained.

There were workarounds during the pandemic, like wearing a clear mask or a face shield.

However, for some kids, not seeing their parents, friends and teachers talk could have pushed back speech.

“The progress of them correcting sounds is probably slower, because they didn’t have that automatic feedback of watching mouths. Previous to the pandemic, they could at least see how we were making sounds and pick some of that up naturally instead of always needing direct intervention to support it,” she said.

It’s not just masks. There’s another aspect of the pandemic Kelly believes has been a problem for speech learning: Online school.

“A lot of children were not the ideal students to learn that way, so it then put them behind in a lot of ways …,” Kelly said. “When it comes to speech sounds, I think some of them aren’t being identified as soon, because often the teacher is the first one to notice it.

“But if the kids aren’t in the classroom or they’re wearing a mask, the teacher might not notice it right away … So I think there has honestly been a little bit of missing some kids.”

So now that things are back to normal in schools, how can kids who have struggled get back on track? “I think a lot of it is just making sure that we’re focused on that structure of literacy,” Kelly said.

Kelly said parents and teachers should temper their expectations of where a child should be.

“A lot of these kids haven’t been in a typical classroom for two years, so they haven’t been exposed to the standard learning of how we’re used to. So I think that we just have to take that into consideration, take a step back ourselves and meet them where they’re at.”

“I think we need to make sure that we’re supporting these kids moving forward instead of just assuming that, ‘Oh, we did online learning, so they must be OK.’

Facial hair set free by end of masking

Another upside to dropping the mask mandate means men will be able to display their facial hair again in all of its glory.

Other than a brief few months in the summer, fuzzy faces have been concealed for nearly two years. According to a barber shop employee in Regina, that has made facial hair a lot less fun.

Sami Bruce works at Sport Clips in Regina. They do regular haircuts, but also facial hair trimming and a hot towel treatment.

Without the help of her and her colleagues, she said quite a few guys have let their facial hair go without the proper maintenance.

“Because of the masks, they’ve kind of had to keep it up on their own. But there are definitely guys that just let it go, then shave it off, and then restart from scratch,” she explained.

“We’re excited to be able to start trimming them again, because most guys aren’t as good as we are at doing it.”

So if a person is excited to let his whiskers free once again, what should he keep in mind if he wants to impress the fellas and the ladies?

Bruce went into what makes a good moustache or beard.

“I would say the thicker the better. You don’t want to have some patchy or thin moustache or beard, which most guys have unfortunately. But it’s OK, some people make it work,” she said with a giggle.

Unfortunately, that’s not always in a person’s control, so she had some other tips.

“First of all, trimming it is pretty important,” she said. “You don’t want it to look like a mess. Getting rid of those dead ends and everything, you want to be able to brush through it.

“Brushing it is very important too. Using beard oils and making sure you wash your beard too Some guys don’t realize that it is hair, just like on your head. You should wash it and take care of it.”