Our New "Masked" Normal

In 2020, we have adopted a new fashion piece. We are now asked to wear facial masks to protect ourselves and others. However, this concept can be extremely difficult for some of our special needs students for many reasons.

Some reasons why students will not wear masks:

• sensory issues (mask texture)
• feeling like they can't breathe
• it's a change
• bothersome
• not appealing
• feels invading

Sometimes, we may feel like this means we need to give up and therefore no longer ask the student to wear a mask. But we wouldn't give up when a student is learning a new concept and they refuse to learn or struggle with the content. Instead, when we find ourselves at a road block, we look for alternate ways to teach our special kiddos! I am not saying, that any parent should be stopped from getting a medical notice to help their children with mandates of wearing facial masks, if a child needs it. I am suggesting to work with your families or families work with teachers, to help your child adapt and learn a new concept that may be challenging but may be part of our lives for a long time. Teaching our students to wear a mask should be no different than when we are learning other new concepts.
Take a look at different steps to help children feel more encouraged to wear a facial mask. This is not meant to be forced or presented in a negative concept. It is important to have a positive, engaging and fun mindset as the mask is introduced to someone who may be having difficulties adapting to mask wearing. Here are some ideas that you could do to help your students or child wear a facial mask. ​

STEP 1-Select the correct mask: ​

Let's begin by taking into consideration the facial mask itself. I know that there are a lot of guidelines as to which specific masks are the most ideal and which masks protects more. But in my mind, I will take ANY mask rather than NO mask  to provide some safety in the middle of a pandemic. :)
Just like I listed above there are going to be many reasons as to why children with disabilities may reject masks. Some students may be pushing the masks away because they do not like the facial mask's texture. Since the pandemic took over, there has been an increase in facial mask designs and forms. There are fabric, paper, cotton and many many more materials or textures. There are also different shapes depending on the facial mask you purchase. Lastly, there is endless designs to choose from which will be an advantage for us in the SPED world. 
The child should be part of the selection process. Think of it just like when you go shopping for clothes, you have to try it before you finally decide it is the right fit! Start with maybe going with a design of something the child may like. It could be a cartoon, color, image or their name on it. If the design is not appealing, try different shapes and textures until the child appears to seek or attempt to direct their attention to that mask.  It may take multiple attempts to find the right fit. But don't give up. You may want to purchase a few to provide options for choice making.
For step 1, all we want, if the child doesn't put on the mask, is to have the child want to be near the mask. That is all! (keep reading to understand my craziness!)

Step 2-Become friends with the mask:

If the child refuses to get near the mask... DO NOT FORCE THE MASK ON THE CHILD. We are going to have to get very creative. When you are playing these games don't forget to ALWAYS REWARD to encourage continuance of this mask related behavior. 
Here are some ways to start making a mask appealing and having fun with the masks:

• Online Resources: Since the pandemic began, many people created online YouTube videos about wearing masks that can be used as video models or to enhance your journey teaching your students about masks.  There are many songs and stories that can make mask wearing more fun and helps the child comprehend why they need to wear a mask. Check out what Sesame Street created. 
• Masked Toys: Select a favorite or preferred toy, Barbie, doll or stuffed animal. Allow the child to put the mask on the preferred toy. Every time the child places the mask on the toy, reward/praise the student. Attempt to encourage the child to take turns putting on the mask on the toy and then on themselves. Have fun with it!  
• Photo on a stick: Print a front faced picture of the child and place a tape or velcroed mask(Mask could be real mask or printed mask). Take turns placing the mask on the picture of the student. This will show them what they look like. You may use different printed masks.
• Mirror/Selfies: Have fun in front of a mirror, or use a phone and take fun selfies (maybe using fun Snapchat filters).  Take turns putting on different masks in front of the mirror/phone.  Laugh, and praise the child for wearing the mask. Compliment them.  "Oh, I love you in that mask!"
• Scavenger Hunt: Create a scavenger hunt for the child to look for people wearing masks during a designated amount of time- have them find different color masks, words, characters, have them count how many they see... Then review what they found. 
• Social Story: Technology can be a great asset especially photoshopping images. You can create your own social story with the child taking pictures in multiple locations. You can add a mask on the top of the picture. It is recommended that the pictures are face forward images to easily place a mask on. A social story may explain that wearing a mask is ok and that they can use it in multiple places. 
• It's okay: There are going to be times when a student refuses to be near the mask as it may have some negative experience attached to it or they may just fear the mask. If this is the situation, you must show the child that the mask is fun, it's everywhere and nothing bad comes out of it. Place masks in different places, so they start finding masks normal. Go to stores and identify masks sold or people wearing masks. Make the mask dance to fun music. Have toys talk wearing a mask saying "it's ok and cool to wear a mask." These things sound silly but it is to change the child's mindset that masks are bad. 
• Touch but don't wear: Wearing a mask may not be the current goal. Some students just need to slowly build their feelings of comfort. Therefore, if this is the type of child you are working with, remember don't force the mask. Just slowly bring the mask to the scene. Place it nearby on the table, and each time bring it closer. Maybe one day the child can touch it with 1 finger and another day the child will just place their hand on the mask. As you keep building their endurance or tolerance, you will find that another day they may hold it in their hand. Next, it could be they just touch their arm with the mask. We will continue by letting the mask touch the face or cheek. Next, put 1 loop in one ear only, and then hold the mask across the mouth without looping it on the second ear yet. Eventually, the goal will be to place the 2nd loop around the other ear until the mask is fully on... even if it is just for one second. Every time the child does ANY of those steps, you will throw a PARTY!! Celebrate, celebrate and celebrate some more with their favorite toy, song, movie, game or food (whatever reinforces the child). In order to see progress, do these activities daily (even better, multiple times a day) in order to shape the child's ability to tolerate the mask.  

Step 3-Build endurance

The child finally accepted the mask in their life and became friends with the mask! That is amazing! But now we need to build endurance in wearing the mask for a period of time. This can also be a little difficult, but it can be fun! We are going to play games to help our children with disabilities learn to wear a mask for longer periods of times. As always, don't forget to reinforce to keep encouraging any new behavior (in this case it will face mask wearing).  

• Beat the timer: Build time resistance. Play a game of beat the timer. Start with small increments of time. Example: 1 minute, wear a hat or gloves. 1 minute, put a sticker on your face. 1 minute, place a cold pack on the leg. Student must keep it on until the timer rings or beat the timer. Once you have developed a routine for other items that the student feels comfortable with, then you can begin to introduce other things like wearing a bandage or the mask. This game is great for students who have tolerance difficulties with many things.  
• Scheduled Mask Time: Create a scheduled mask time. Start with every 30 minutes, students will wear the mask for 1-2 minutes for one week or a couple days. Then slowly begin increasing the increments of mask wearing time during those 30 minutes. This will build endurance for wearing a mask for a longer period of time.
• Masked game: Tell your students that you will be playing a game. It could be a game that is based on their favorite cartoon or character. In this game we get to read a story, or do activities wearing a mask. Maybe you read words with a mask to see if people can understand what you said. 
• Mask Cutting: This idea was shared by my dear friend, Rhonda. You could also cut about 1 inch off the outer sides of the mask, so that the mask still covers the nose and mouth, but not cheeks.  Every few days or week cut less of outer side of a mask.  Wearing a full mask is the target, and this not instead of a full mask, but while you are teaching mask wearing, students at least have their mouth and nose covered more.  

Using the above activities consistently will help the child to improve and increase their ability to wear a mask. You can use these same activities to teach children other important skills- feeding, tactile defensiveness, non preferred tasks,... There will be many obstacles that can be challenging or the child's disability may have some hardships. But just like the phrase... "When there is a will, there is a way." I know together and with a positive mindset we can help children master anything we put our minds to. This pandemic has created a new normal and thrown us in a loop of unknowns, but we got this! ​