DFPM-RED’s Dr. Nikki Edge recently appeared on KATV to talk about a new resource for early care and education professionals and the children and families they serve. New Health Department guidelines now require that teachers caring for young children wear masks. While this is important for health and safety reasons, it can be confusing and upsetting to young children. Young children often have a hard time recognizing loved ones who change their appearance (for example, by shaving a beard or changing a hairstyle) and masks are a big change! Other children associate masks with ‘bad guys’ from the cartoons or have memories of scary Halloween masks.
The DFPM RED team collaborated with colleagues at A-State and ARBEST to develop a mask story primarily for teachers and parents of children under the age of 6. This story helps prepare children for what they will experience with their teacher (or other adults) and helps them understand that masks are safe and not scary. With the help of DHS, this story is being printed for distribution to every licensed child care program in AR.
See the KATV story here.