Masks do not affect infants’ attention according to study
Published: Tuesday, Dec 10th 2024, 18:40
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Even when their mother or father is wearing a face mask, young children still have enough visual and emotional cues to communicate and interact with their caregivers. This is the conclusion of a recent study by researchers at the University of Zurich.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, life has changed due to contact restrictions, social distancing and the wearing of face masks, among other things. Even for children.
Researchers at the university investigated whether and how wearing face masks during the pandemic influenced the interaction between young children and their caregivers, as the University of Zurich announced on Tuesday.
95 Children and caregivers
For the study, a total of 95 12- to 15-month-old children and one of their caregivers performed various tasks together. Half of the caregivers wore a face mask, the other half did not. The researchers measured how many moments there were in which children and adults focused together on the same object or event.
The results showed that the wearing of a mask by a caregiver had no observable influence on shared attention, according to the press release.
According to the researchers, there are various possible explanations for this: On the one hand, children may have become accustomed to masks on their faces over the course of the pandemic. On the other hand, the communicative cues that are still visible when wearing a mask, such as the direction of gaze, could be sufficient to draw the children's attention.
The University of Zurich writes that children are surprisingly adaptable from an early age and make use of the cues available to them.
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