Connect with us
We may receive compensation from affiliate partners for some links on this site. Read our full Disclosure here.

Speech Therapist Says Face Masks to Blame For 364% Spike in Baby and Toddler Referrals

Published

on

While the CDC recommends young children wear face masks to prevent COVID-19, other health professionals say they’ve had a detrimental effect.

A speech therapist stated mask-wearing during the ‘pandemic’ has caused a 364% increase in patient referrals of babies and toddlers due to speech delays.

Jaclyn Theek told WPBF News that before the pandemic, only 5 percent of patients were babies and toddlers, but this has increased to 20 percent.

Her comments suggest mask-wearing may be causing horrendous damage to healthy childhood development.

Watch her explain below:

Summit News explains:

As young as 8 months old, babies start learning how to speak by reading lips, a thankless task if parents and carers smother themselves with masks to comply with mandates.

“It’s very important kids do see your face to learn, so they’re watching your mouth,” said Theek.

The news report featured one such mother, Briana Gay, who is raising five children but having speech problems with her youngest.

“It definitely makes a difference when the world you’re growing up in you can’t interact with people and their face, that’s super important to babies,” said Gay.

According to Theek, since the pandemic, autism symptoms are also skyrocketing.

“They’re not making any word attempts and not communicating at all with their family,” she said.

WPBF added:

Researchers will need time to determine whether COVID-19 masks are the official cause of delayed speech. Still, therapists tell parents that early intervention is key — and that’s already working for Diego.

“He’s going to be totally fine. I think so,” Santos said.

Doctors are telling parents to look for these speech milestones in young children:

  • At 12-months-old, toddlers typically say about five to ten words, such as “mama” and “dada.”
  • At 18-months-old, most kids can say 25 to 50 words.
  • By 2-years-old, kids should be saying hundreds of words.

The biggest piece of advice, therapists say, is to give your kids your time. When parents are home and the mask is off, turn off the media and instead read to your child, play and sing with them, so they can observe speech.

As WLT noted, early findings from Rhode Island found children born during COVID-19 hysteria have a 20-point lower IQ on average.

Mask wearing has undeniably played a huge factor in the stunted development of toddlers.

 

Join the conversation!

Please share your thoughts about this article below. We value your opinions, and would love to see you add to the discussion!

If you love what we do, please consider a $1/month donation to keep us live! Thank you!

DONATE
Join the TruthLion Nightly Newsletter ... for FREE!