Infants recognize words spoken through opaque masks but not through clear masks

The effect of visual speech cues on neural tracking of speech in 10-month-old infants

While infants' sensitivity to visual speech cues and the benefit of these cues have been well-established by behavioural studies, there is little evidence on the effect of visual speech cues on infants' neural processing of continuous auditory speech. In this study, we investigated whether visual speech cues, such as the movements of the lips, jaw, and larynx, facilitate infants' neural speech tracking. Ten-month-old Dutch-learning infants watched videos of a speaker reciting passages in infant-directed speech while electroencephalography (EEG) was recorded. In the videos, either the full face of the speaker was displayed or the speaker's mouth and jaw were masked with a block, obstructing the visual speech cues. To assess neural tracking, speech-brain coherence (SBC) was calculated, focusing particularly on the stress and syllabic rates (1-1.75 and 2.5-3.5 Hz respectively in our stimuli). First, overall, SBC was compared to surrogate data, and then, differences in SBC in the two conditions were tested at the frequencies of interest. Our results indicated that infants show significant tracking at both stress and syllabic rates. However, no differences were identified between the two conditions, meaning that infants' neural tracking was not modulated further by the presence of visual speech cues. Furthermore, we demonstrated that infants' neural tracking of low-frequency information is related to their subsequent vocabulary development at 18 months. Overall, this study provides evidence that infants' neural tracking of speech is not necessarily impaired when visual speech cues are not fully visible and that neural tracking may be a potential mechanism in successful language acquisition.

Prolonged COVID-19 related effects on early language development: A longitudinal study

BACKGROUND

There is growing evidence that COVID-19 brought changes that immediately affected early language development. Little is known for how long these COVID-19 related changes shaped development. The current study systematically and longitudinally addressed this issue, following up children's language development throughout the first 2.5 years.

METHOD

The present study follows up on the sample from Frota et al. (2022), which demonstrated that 7-9-month-old infants born and raised during the pandemic do not segment words unlike pre-pandemic peers. Four studies were conducted: (1) word segmentation task at 12 months of age (Npandemic = 15); (2) word learning task at 20 months of age (Npandemic = 20); (3) language and communication development up to 30 months of age, via CDI and CSBS parental reports (Npandemic ranged 25-74); (4) overall development at 30 months of age using the Griffiths Developmental Scales (Npandemic = 16).

RESULTS

The pandemic sample consistently underperformed in all four studies in comparison to pre-pandemic data. There was no evidence of developed word segmentation abilities at 12 months of age, and no successful word learning at 20 months of age. Lexical development between 12 and 24 months of age was lower than in the pre-pandemic sample, while social communication did not seem to be affected. At 30 months of age, the pandemic sample showed lower scores and lower mental age on the Language and Communication Griffiths' subscale, in comparison to the pre-pandemic data.

CONCLUSIONS

Infants born and raised during the pandemic have a poorer language development, that persists at least until 30 months of age.

Adapting language development research paradigms to online testing: Data from preferential looking, word learning and vocabulary assessment in toddlers

During the recent pandemic, it became necessary to adapt lab-based studies to online experiments. To investigate the impact of online testing on the quality of data, we focus on three paradigms widely used in infant research: a word recognition task using the Intermodal Preferential Looking Paradigm, a word learning task using the Switch task, and a language assessment tool (WinG) where children identify a target word amongst a set of picture cards. Our results for synchronous and asynchronous studies provide support for the robustness of online testing. In Experiment 1, robust word recognition was found in 24-month-old toddlers. In Experiment 2, 17-month-old infants consistently learned a new word. Finally, Experiment 3 demonstrated that 19- to 26-month-old children performed well on a language assessment test administered online. Overall, effect sizes or language scores were found to be higher than in lab-based studies. These experiments point to promising possibilities for reaching out to families around the world.

The effect of masks on infants' ability to fast-map and generalize new words

Young children today are exposed to masks on a regular basis. However, there is limited empirical evidence on how masks may affect word learning. The study explored the effect of masks on infants' abilities to fast-map and generalize new words. Seventy-two Chinese infants (43 males, Mage = 18.26 months) were taught two novel word-object pairs by a speaker with or without a mask. They then heard the words and had to visually identify the correct objects and also generalize words to a different speaker and objects from the same category. Eye-tracking results indicate that infants looked longer at the target regardless of whether a speaker wore a mask. They also looked longer at the speaker's eyes than at the mouth only when words were taught through a mask. Thus, fast-mapping and generalization occur in both masked and not masked conditions as infants can flexibly access different visual cues during word-learning.

Social inequalities in early childhood language development during the COVID-19 pandemic: a descriptive study with data from three consecutive school entry surveys in Germany

BACKGROUND

Social health inequalities are still of great public health importance in modern societies. The COVID-19 pandemic may have affected social inequalities in people's health due to containment measures. As these measures particularly affected children, they might have been particularly vulnerable to increased social inequalities. The aim of the study was to describe health inequalities during the pandemic based on language delay (LD) in children in order to inform public health interventions for a population at risk of long-term health and education inequalities.

METHODS

Data of 5-7 year old children from three consecutive school entry surveys in the German federal state of Brandenburg were used, including data compulsorily collected before the pandemic (2018/2019: n = 19,299), at the beginning of the pandemic (2019/2020: n = 19,916) and during the pandemic (2020/2021: n = 19,698). Bivariate and multivariate binary regression analyses [OR, 95% CI] cross-sectionally examined the relationship between the prevalence of LD [yes/no] and social inequalities, operationalized by family socioeconomic position [SEP low/middle/high], migration background [native-German language/non-native German language] and length of kindergarten attendance [< 4 years/ ≥ 4 years]. Factors contributing to inequality in LD were examined by socioeconomic stratification.

RESULTS

Cross-sectionally, LD prevalence has decreased overall (2018/2019: 21.1%, 2019/2020: 19.2%, 2020/2021: 18.8%), and among children from both high SEP and native German-speaking families. As LD prevalence increased among children from families with low SEP and remained stable among non-native German speakers, social inequalities in LD prevalence increased slightly during the pandemic i) by low SEP (2018/2019: OR = 4.41, 3.93-4.94; 2020/2021: OR = 5.12, 4.54-5.77) and ii) by non-German native language (2018/2019: OR = 2.22, 1.86-2.66; 2020/2021: OR = 2.54, 2.19-2.95). During the pandemic, both migration background and kindergarten attendance determined LD prevalence in the high and middle SEP strata. However, the measured factors did not contribute to LD prevalence in children from families with low SEP.

CONCLUSION

Social inequalities in LD increased due to opposing trends in prevalence comparing low and high SEP families. To promote health equity across the life course, early childhood should be of interest for tailored public health actions (e.g. through targeted interventions for kindergarten groups). Further analytical studies should investigate determinants (e.g., parental investment).

Effects of face masks on fairness in on-site personnel selection during a pandemic

Introduction

Despite significant challenges, personnel selection procedures had to continue as on-site testing in the Covid-19 pandemic. Health and safety measures and specifically the use of face masks threaten to limit the fairness of cognitive testing and behavioral observation in the assessment center.

Methods

In this study, we compare the performance and pass rates of pilot selection under three different conditions in the selection campaigns of 2019 (pre-pandemic), 2020 (health and safety measures without mask), and 2021 (health and safety measures with mask).

Results

Mask wearing and other health and safety measures had no influence on the objective parameters of pilot selection. However, for some of the areas of competence in the assessment center subjective observability was rated lower for the condition with face masks.

Discussion

We conclude that the fairness and precision of selection processes are not compromised by wearing face masks and that a high degree of standardization in diagnostic instruments prevents a partially reduced subjective observability from affecting the selection's outcome.

Language acquisition in a post-pandemic context: the impact of measures against COVID-19 on early language development

Language acquisition is influenced by the quality and quantity of input that language learners receive. In particular, early language development has been said to rely on the acoustic speech stream, as well as on language-related visual information, such as the cues provided by the mouth of interlocutors. Furthermore, children's expressive language skills are also influenced by the variability of interlocutors that provided the input. The COVID-19 pandemic has offered an unprecedented opportunity to explore the way these input factors affect language development. On the one hand, the pervasive use of masks diminishes the quality of speech, while it also reduces visual cues to language. On the other hand, lockdowns and restrictions regarding social gatherings have considerably limited the amount of interlocutor variability in children's input. The present study aims at analyzing the effects of the pandemic measures against COVID-19 on early language development. To this end, 41 children born in 2019 and 2020 were compared with 41 children born before 2012 using the Catalan adaptation of the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventories (MB-CDIs). Results do not show significant differences in vocabulary between pre- and post-Covid children, although there is a tendency for children with lower vocabulary levels to be in the post-Covid group. Furthermore, a relationship was found between interlocutor variability and participants' vocabulary, indicating that those participants with fewer opportunities for socio-communicative diversity showed lower expressive vocabulary scores. These results reinforce other recent findings regarding input factors and their impact on early language learning.

Effects of face masks on language comprehension in bilingual children

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many children receive language input through face coverings. The impact of face coverings for children's abilities to understand language remains unclear. Past research with monolingual children suggests that hearing words through surgical masks does not disrupt word recognition, but hearing words through transparent face shields proves more challenging. In this study, we investigated effects of different face coverings (surgical masks and transparent face shields) on language comprehension in bilingual children. Three-year-old English-Mandarin bilingual children (N = 28) heard familiar words in both English and Mandarin spoken through transparent face shields, surgical masks, and without masks. When tested in English, children recognized words presented without a mask and through a surgical mask, but did not recognize words presented with transparent face shields, replicating past findings with monolingual children. In contrast, when tested in Mandarin, children recognized words presented without a mask, through a surgical mask, and through a transparent face shield. Results are discussed in terms of specific properties of English and Mandarin that may elicit different effects for transparent face shields. Overall, the present findings suggest that face coverings, and in particular, surgical masks do not disrupt spoken word recognition in young bilingual children.

When less is not more: the effect of transparent masks on facial attractiveness judgment

During the COVID-19 pandemic, face masks have been widely used in daily life. Previous studies have suggested that faces wearing typical masks that occlude the lower half of the face are perceived as more attractive than face without masks. However, relatively little work has been done on how transparent masks that reveal the lower half of the face affect the judgment of facial attractiveness. To investigate the effect of transparent masks on the perceived attractiveness, in the current study, we asked participants to rate the attractiveness of faces without masks and with a typical opaque mask and a transparent mask. The results showed that faces wearing opaque masks were evaluated as more attractive than those wearing transparent masks or no masks. The benefit of opaque masks was more pronounced in faces that were initially evaluated as unattractive. Interestingly, wearing transparent masks decreased the perceived attractiveness of faces but only for the faces initially rated as attractive, possibly because of the visual distortion of the lower half of the face by transparent masks. In summary, we found that opaque and transparent masks have different effects on perceived attractiveness, depending on the attractiveness of faces. Given benefits of transparent masks in socio-emotional and cognitive processing, it would be important to further understand the effect of transparent masks on face information processing.

Hidden Costs of the COVID-19 Pandemic Response

"First, do no harm" [...].

The effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on infant development and maternal mental health in the first 2 years of life

We investigated how exogenous variation in exposure to the COVID-19 pandemic during the first year of life is related to infant development, maternal mental health, and perceived stress. Ninety-three socioeconomically diverse pregnant women were recruited before the pandemic to participate in a longitudinal study. Infants ranged in age at the beginning of lockdown (0-9.5 months old), thus experiencing different durations of pandemic exposure across the first year of life. The duration of pandemic exposure was not associated with family demographic characteristics, suggesting it captured exogenous variability. We tested associations between this exogenous variation in pandemic exposure and child and family outcomes. We also examined whether mother-reported disruptive life events were correlated with child and family outcomes. We found no association between duration of pandemic exposure in the first year of life and infant socioemotional problems, infant language development, or maternal mental health and perceived stress symptoms, at 12 or 24 months. However, we found that self-reported exposure to pandemic-related disruptive life events predicted greater maternal depression, anxiety, and perceived stress at 12 months, and greater depression and anxiety at 24 months. Socioeconomic status did not moderate these associations. These findings suggest cautious optimism for infants raised during this period.

Classroom language during COVID-19: Associations between mask-wearing and objectively measured teacher and preschooler vocalizations

During the COVID-19 pandemic, mask-wearing in classrooms has become commonplace. However, there are little data on the effect of face-masks on children’s language input and production in educational contexts, like preschool classrooms which over half of United States children attend. Leveraging repeated objective measurements, we longitudinally examined child and teacher speech-related vocalizations in two cohorts of 3.5–4.5-year-old children enrolled in the same oral language classroom that included children with and without hearing loss. Cohort 1 was observed before COVID-19 (no face-masks, N = 20) and Cohort 2 was observed during COVID-19 (with face-masks; N = 15). Vocalization data were collected using child-worn audio recorders over 12 observations spanning two successive school years, yielding 9.09 mean hours of audio recording per child. During COVID-19 teachers produced a higher number of words per minute than teachers observed prior to COVID-19. However, teacher vocalizations during COVID-19 contained fewer unique phonemes than teacher vocalizations prior to COVID-19. Children observed during COVID-19 did not exhibit deficits in the duration, rate, or phonemic diversity of their vocalizations compared to children observed prior to COVID-19. Children observed during COVID-19 produced vocalizations that were longer in duration than vocalizations of children observed prior to COVID-19. During COVID-19 (but not before), children who were exposed to a higher number of words per minute from teachers produced more speech-related vocalizations per minute themselves. Overall, children with hearing loss were exposed to teacher vocalizations that were longer in duration, more teacher words per minute, and more phonemically diverse teacher speech than children with typical hearing. In terms of production, children with hearing loss produced vocalizations that were longer in duration than the vocalizations of children with typical hearing. Among children observed during COVID-19, children with hearing loss exhibited a higher vocalization rate than children with typical hearing. These results suggest that children’s language production is largely unaffected by mask use in the classroom and that children can benefit from the language they are exposed to despite teacher mask-wearing.

Mask wearing in Japanese and French nursery schools: The perceived impact of masks on communication

Due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, covering the mouth region with a face mask became pervasive in many regions of the world, potentially impacting how people communicate with and around children. To explore the characteristics of this masked communication, we asked nursery school educators, who have been at the forefront of daily masked interaction with children, about their perception of daily communicative interactions while wearing a mask in an online survey. We collected data from French and Japanese nursery school educators to gain an understanding of commonalities and differences in communicative behavior with face masks given documented cultural differences in pre-pandemic mask wearing habits, face scanning patterns, and communicative behavior. Participants (177 French and 138 Japanese educators) reported a perceived change in their own communicative behavior while wearing a mask, with decreases in language quantity and increases in language quality and non-verbal cues. Comparable changes in their team members’ and children’s communicative behaviors were also reported. Moreover, our results suggest that these changes in educators’ communicative behaviors are linked to their attitudes toward mask wearing and their potential difficulty in communicating following its use. These findings shed light on the impact of pandemic-induced mask wearing on children’s daily communicative environment.

Impact of Using Facemasks on Literacy Learning: The Perception of Early Childhood Education Teachers

In this work, quantitative research is carried out on the importance that educators give to literacy work in early childhood education classrooms and the impact that the COVID-19 pandemic and the use of facemasks have had on it. To this end, a survey designed for this purpose has been used, which has been passed on to a set of 112 Spanish early childhood educators. The teachers surveyed occupy different positions in the classroom (tutors, support technicians, specialists in bilingualism, therapeutic pedagogy and speech and hearing), and, in addition, they themselves learned to read from different methods of literacy learning (synthetic or analytical). The results found in this study indicate that educators express intermediate evaluations of the importance of literacy work in the classroom, higher if it is done through digital resources, and higher for the synthetic method than for the analytical method. In addition, the impact of the use of masks on literacy learning was rated as very negative. On the other hand, gaps have been identified in the above perceptions by the position occupied in the classroom and by the method used to learn to read. Finally, some actions are suggested to homogenize the perceptions of the different professionals, and some lines of research are proposed.

The Recognition of Facial Expressions Under Surgical Masks: The Primacy of Anger

Background

The need to wear surgical masks in everyday life has drawn the attention of psychologists to the negative effects of face covering on social processing. A recent but not homogeneous literature has highlighted large costs in the ability to recognize emotions.

Methods

Here it was investigated how mask covering impaired the recognition of facial mimicry in a large group of 220 undergraduate students. Sex differences in emotion recognition were also analyzed in two subgroups of 94 age-matched participants. Subjects were presented with 112 pictures displaying the faces of eight actors (4 women and 4 men) wearing or not wearing real facemasks, and expressing seven emotional states (neutrality, surprise, happiness, sadness, disgust, anger and fear). The task consisted in categorizing facial expressions while indicating the emotion recognizability with a 3-point Likert scale. Scores underwent repeated measures ANOVAs.

Results

Overall, face masking reduced emotion recognition by 31%. All emotions were affected by mask covering except for anger. Face covering was most detrimental to sadness and disgust, both relying on mouth and nose expressiveness. Women showed a better performance for subtle expressions such as surprise and sadness, both in masked and natural conditions, and men for fear recognition (in natural but especially masked conditions).

Conclusion

Anger display was unaffected by masking, also because corrugated forehead and frowning eyebrows were clearly exposed. Overall, facial masking seems to polarize non-verbal communication toward the happiness/anger dimension, while minimizing emotions that stimulate an empathic response in the observer.

Early Word Segmentation Behind the Mask

Infants have been shown to rely both on auditory and visual cues when processing speech. We investigated the impact of COVID-related changes, in particular of face masks, in early word segmentation abilities. Following up on our previous study demonstrating that, by 4 months, infants already segmented targets presented auditorily at utterance-edge position, and, using the same visual familiarization paradigm, 7-9-month-old infants performed an auditory and an audiovisual word segmentation experiment in two conditions: without and with an FFP2 face mask. Analysis of acoustic and visual cues showed changes in face-masked speech affecting the amount, weight, and location of cues. Utterance-edge position displayed more salient cues than utterance-medial position, but the cues were attenuated in face-masked speech. Results revealed no evidence for segmentation, not even at edge position, regardless of mask condition and auditory or visual speech presentation. However, in the audiovisual experiment, infants attended more to the screen during the test trials when familiarized with without mask speech. Also, the infants attended more to the mouth and less to the eyes in without mask than with mask. In addition, evidence for an advantage of the utterance-edge position in emerging segmentation abilities was found. Thus, audiovisual information provided some support to developing word segmentation. We compared 7-9-monthers segmentation ability observed in the Butler and Frota pre-COVID study with the current auditory without mask data. Mean looking time for edge was significantly higher than unfamiliar in the pre-COVID study only. Measures of cognitive and language development obtained with the CSBS scales showed that the infants of the current study scored significantly lower than the same-age infants from the CSBS (pre-COVID) normative data. Our results suggest an overall effect of the pandemic on early segmentation abilities and language development, calling for longitudinal studies to determine how development proceeds.

Improving the measurement and acoustic performance of transparent face masks and shields

Opaque face masks harm communication by preventing speech-reading (lip-reading) and attenuating high-frequency sound. Although transparent masks and shields (visors) with clear plastic inserts allow speech-reading, they usually create more sound attenuation than opaque masks. Consequently, an iterative process was undertaken to create a better design, and the instructions to make it are published. The experiments showed that lowering the mass of the plastic inserts decreases the high-frequency sound attenuation. A shield with a clear thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) panel had an insertion loss of (2.0 ± 1.1) dB for 1.25-8 kHz, which improves on previous designs that had attenuations of 11.9 dB and above. A cloth mask with a TPU insert was designed and had an insertion loss of (4.6 ± 2.3) dB for 2-8 kHz, which is better than the 9-22 dB reported previously in the literature. The speech intelligibility index was also evaluated. Investigations to improve measurement protocols that use either mannikins or human talkers were undertaken. Manufacturing variability and inconsistency of human speaking were greater sources of experimental error than fitting differences. It was shown that measurements from a mannikin could match those from humans if insertion losses from four human talkers were averaged.

Association of Child Masking With COVID-19-Related Closures in US Childcare Programs

IMPORTANCE

It is not known how effective child masking is in childcare settings in preventing the transmission of SARS-CoV-2. This question is critical to inform health policy and safe childcare practices.

OBJECTIVE

To assess the association between masking children 2 years and older and subsequent childcare closure because of COVID-19.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS

A prospective, 1-year, longitudinal electronic survey study of 6654 childcare professionals at home- and center-based childcare programs in all 50 states was conducted at baseline (May 22 to June 8, 2020) and follow-up (May 26 to June 23, 2021). Using a generalized linear model (log-binomial model) with robust SEs, this study evaluated the association between childcare program closure because of a confirmed or suspected COVID-19 case in either children or staff during the study period and child masking in both early adoption (endorsed at baseline) and continued masking (endorsed at baseline and follow-up), while controlling for physical distancing, other risk mitigation strategies, and program and community characteristics.

EXPOSURES

Child masking in childcare programs as reported by childcare professionals at baseline and both baseline and follow-up.

MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES

Childcare program closure because of a suspected or confirmed COVID-19 case in either children or staff as reported in the May 26 to June 23, 2021, end survey.

RESULTS

This survey study of 6654 childcare professionals (mean [SD] age, 46.9 [11.3] years; 750 [11.3%] were African American, 57 [0.9%] American Indian/Alaska Native, 158 [2.4%] Asian, 860 [12.9%] Hispanic, 135 [2.0%] multiracial [anyone who selected >1 race on the survey], 18 [0.3%] Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, and 5020 [75.4%] White) found that early adoption (baseline) of child masking was associated with a 13% lower risk of childcare program closure because of a COVID-19 case (adjusted relative risk, 0.87; 95% CI, 0.77-0.99), and continued masking for 1 year was associated with a 14% lower risk (adjusted relative risk, 0.86; 95% CI, 0.74-1.00).

CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE

This survey study of childcare professionals suggests that masking young children is associated with fewer childcare program closures, enabling in-person education. This finding has important public health policy implications for families that rely on childcare to sustain employment.

[Impact of wearing face masks in public to prevent infectious diseases on the psychosocial development in children and adolescents: a systematic review]

Hintergrund

Zur Prävention tröpfchenübertragener Infektionskrankheiten wird das Tragen einer Maske im öffentlichen Raum unter bestimmten Bedingungen empfohlen.

Ziel der Arbeit

Ziel war, über eine sensitive Literatursuche möglichst alle deutsch- und englischsprachigen Forschungsergebnisse aus begutachteten Fachzeitschriftenartikeln zu den Auswirkungen des Masketragens zur Prävention von Infektionen auf die psychosoziale Entwicklung von Kindern und Jugendlichen zusammenzutragen.

Methoden

Es wurde ein systematischer Review unter Berücksichtigung verschiedener Studiendesigns durchgeführt (Suchzeitraum bis einschließlich 12.07.2021). Das Verzerrungsrisiko der Studien wurde mit einem Risk-of-Bias-Verfahren ermittelt. Es fand eine deskriptiv-narrative Ergebnissynthese statt.

Ergebnisse

Es wurden 13 Studien eingeschlossen, wobei das Gesamtverzerrungsrisiko in allen Primärstudien als hoch eingeschätzt wurde. Es gibt Hinweise aus Befragungsstudien, dass die Fähigkeit zum Lesen der Mimik von Kindern/Jugendlichen und/oder ihren Betreuer:innen im (Vor‑)Schulsetting durch das Masketragen als beeinträchtigt erlebt wird, die durch mehrere Experimentalstudien bestätigt wurden. 2 Studien berichteten über psychische Symptome wie Ängste oder Stresserleben sowie Konzentrations- und Lernschwierigkeiten durch das Masketragen während der COVID-19-Pandemie. Eine Studie während der SARS-Pandemie 2002/2003 untersuchte mündliche Prüfungsleistungen in Englisch als Fremdsprache und zeigte keinen Unterschied zwischen den Bedingungen „Maske“ versus „keine Maske“.

Diskussion

Zu den Auswirkungen des Masketragens auf verschiedene Entwicklungsbereiche von Kindern und Jugendlichen lassen sich basierend auf der unzureichenden Studienlage nur wenige Erkenntnisse ableiten. Es fehlen Forschungsdaten zu den Folgen für die Endpunkte psychische Entwicklung, Sprachentwicklung, sozioemotionale Entwicklung, soziales Verhalten, Schulerfolg und Teilhabe. Weitere qualitative Studien und epidemiologische Studien sind unbedingt nötig.

Zusatzmaterial online

Zusätzliche Informationen sind in der Online-Version dieses Artikels (10.1007/s00103-021-03443-5) enthalten.