The Face Mask Challenge: Helping Your Child Adapt to a Mask
/As a school-based speech language pathologist, the topic of “face masks” and “Covid-19” have been constant. My students, ranging from second grade to high school, have had a lot to share:
· “What if I see someone else not wearing his/her mask!?”
· “ It hurts my ears!”
· “It hurts my head!”
· “I can’t breathe with one on”
· “I had to wear it while flying and I never want to do that again!”
· “I got a really cool dinosaur mask!”
· “ I’ve never worn a mask before”
Some students don’t seem to mind. Some students have had a negative experience with a mask. Some students have yet to wear one and some students find them fun and cool! Basically, children are all over the map for how they feel about face masks and children with special needs experience even greater challenges due to sensory sensitivities, motor challenges and adapting to new routines.
So, how can you help your child adapt to wearing that mask?
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For the last day of speech therapy sessions of the year, I emailed parents and made it a requirement for all students to show me their mask. They did not have to wear it, but simply had to show me they knew what a mask was, how it felt in their hands, and that they did indeed have one.
While almost all schools in the U.S. are going back to distance learning in the Fall back, hybrid learning will come soon enough and the expectations of wearing face masks while in school will be in place. Not only that, but getting outside, going for walks, going the store and taking care of yourself is more important now than ever before, which all require a face mask.
So, How Can You Help My Child Understand And Adapt?
Model Wearing a Mask: modeling the behavior that you would like to see is the very best kind of teaching! Normalize wearing a mask, wear it in the house, wear it in the car, and have the masks around the house for easy and constant viewing. Try to maintain positive (e.g., keep comments like “it is hard to breathe” at a limit).
Social Stories: Social stories help provide front-loading to teach someone the purpose of masks and how a mask might look on someone before wearing one. Social stories help increase trust, encourage familiarity, and paint a picture of the reason “why” masks are being worn. There are hundreds of wonderful social stories out there now. Here are some of my favorites:
Wearing a mask social story and video by ASERT
Practice Washing Hands!
Turn on your child’s favorite tune for 20 seconds and wash hands to increase the time under water
Do it together, use hand over hand support if needed, and make it fun!
Establish new routines
Make rules about when a mask will be worn to make it predictable
For example: It is a rule to wear a mask when heading into the car, leaving the house, walking outside, etc.
Pairing and Shaping
Wearing a mask may be a process. You may need to break the steps down to wearing a mask fully. If your child has sensory challenges or worries, try these steps:
Allow your child to touch the mask, hold the mask and feel it on different parts of their body. Gradually bring the masks towards his/her face when ready
Touch the mask to their face. Show what the elastic will feel and look like on your head, then on your child’s.
Adjust the elastic as needed. Show how it will feel on different areas of your child’s head (high up, directly behind the ears, etc.). Immediately take the masks off after showing how the elastic will feel.
Introduce different kinds of masks: bandanas, tie masks, cotton, etc.
Gradually increase the time your child is wearing the mask (use a timer, etc.)
The most important part to shaping use rewards for each step/ desired behavior! Examples: increased attention (e.g., good job wearing your mask for 10 seconds!), give hugs, high fives, stickers, tokens, etc.
Tips and Reminders!
