Health protocols in schools were lightened this Friday, February 11 by the Minister of National Education, with the removal of masks during recess and a reduction in the self-tests required.
We, speech therapists of the National Collective of Speech Therapists of France, support this progress which we welcome as obvious, insofar as
"the wearing of a mask is no longer required outdoors for the general population"
since February 2, 2022 according to the scheme gradual easing of health measures announced by the government.
However, we strongly call on the Minister of National Education, Jean-Michel Blanquer to go further.
For this, the National Collective of Speech Therapists of France, which brings together more than a hundred speech therapists concerned and mobilized to respect the psychological and physiological development of the child, has called on all communication rehabilitation professionals to massively send two documents evoking the consequences of wearing a mask at school for children aged 6 to 10 to the Ministry of National Education, including the last forum of the collective signed by 144 speech therapists and the computer graphics produced following this forum .
Wearing a mask in children leads to poorer oxygenation of the brain leading to possible headaches, difficulty concentrating and reduced intellectual and attentional abilities.
The National Collective of Speech Therapists of France
Indeed, we wonder about the fact that children are always
"the last wheel of the carriage"
and that the measures concerning them always arrive behind those of adults.
However, we recall that the child is a developing being, he is not a miniature adult, he therefore has different and primordial needs.
Children should therefore benefit from reduced measures well before adults, especially since they are only rarely affected by serious forms of Covid-19.
In our speech therapy practices, we notice, in our patients, a direct consequence of wearing a mask which is the persistence of mouth breathing with an open mouth resulting in a tongue in a low position which will hinder the proper physiological development of their sphere. oro-facial with significant repercussions in particular on swallowing and on the dental articulation.
Wearing a mask also has many deleterious effects on learning both oral and written language.
Indeed, we observe an increased risk of errors in grapho-phonemic learning.
In 2021, a study[1] showed that children who had weak phonological awareness were helped by lip reading.
With lip reading disappearing under the mask, the performance gap between the strong and the weak has increased.
Wearing a mask in children leads to poorer oxygenation of the brain leading to possible headaches, difficulty concentrating and reduced intellectual and attentional abilities.
Wearing a mask creates a major loss of opportunity for children who have a disorder or disability and this reinforces social inequalities.
The National Collective of Speech Therapists of France
Wearing glasses is complicated by the appearance of fog: many children abandon their glasses, which leads to an aggravation of their visual problems.
Finally, the health protocols and in particular the mask constantly remind the child of the anxiety-provoking situation of Covid-19 leading to anxiety, a decrease in the desire to go to school, even school phobias.
This creates a major loss of opportunity for children with a disorder or disability and reinforces social inequalities.
Read also“Making children wear masks is a political and unscientific choice”
Speech therapists of the National Collective of Speech Therapists of France, we believe that the benefit/risk balance has not been respected and that wearing a mask is incompatible with the harmonious development of children.
This is why we are asking the Minister of National Education, Jean-Michel Blanquer, to completely remove the obligation to wear a mask in schools, both indoors and outdoors, as it is planned to remove the mask from adults. indoors on February 28, 2022.
The petitioners :
The National Collective of Speech Therapists of France
Marielle Avrillon, Speech therapist, 34500 Béziers
Virginie Baquerre, Speech therapist, 91410 Dourdan
Brigitte Canaan, Speech therapist, 04700 La Brillanne
Véronique Chavin, Speech therapist, 71330 Le Planois
Delphine Delacour, Speech therapist, 84210 Pernes-les-Fontaines
Violaine Dumoulin, Speech therapist, 71850 Charnay-Les-Macon
Laurence Dutey-Harispe, Speech therapist, 37300 Joue Les Tours
Brigitte Gevaudan, Speech therapist, 94800 Villejuif
Nathalie Gual Hancali, Speech therapist, 32120 Mauvezin
Pascale Guilbert, Speech therapist, 14430 Dozule
Marie-Clotilde Hemery-Legrain, Speech therapist, 02000 Chambry
Benjamin Leroy, Speech therapist, 57730 Folschviller
Anne Mouries, Speech therapist, 84360 Lauris
Armelle Noël, Speech therapist, 21000 Dijon
Maryline Plancher, Speech therapist, 17450 Saint-Laurent-De-La-Pree
Laurence Prunel, Speech therapist, 64990 Mouguerre
Clémentine Tezzon, Speech therapist, 77000 Melun
Catherine Trannoy, Speech therapist, 84120 La Bastidonne
Marie-Clotilde Vuatrin, Speech therapist, 78530 Buc
[1] https://www.cairn.info/revue-l-annee-psychologique-2021-2-page-3.htm
