Did you hear about the CDC adjusting age markers for children's development milestones?
Instead of taking any responsibility or trying to find a solution, the "experts" are trying to sweep under the rug that our children (who haven't known anything but a post COVID-19 environment) aren’t meeting critical developmental milestones as previous generations. The appropriate question for everyone, including our Health Departments and Health Experts, should be "Why are so many of today's children failing to meet the standards previously achieved by children developing during a pre-COVID 19 time"? What has been happening the last two years that could have an impact on their development? Should we consider it to be our cumulative response to the pandemic as a whole and all the policies that came with it?
We are seeing the worst chronic health epidemic in the history of our nation. Instead of asking WHY, the CDC is normalizing delays and has altered the standard of measure for these essential building blocks to instead delay their developmental time frame. Just like with any disease or illness, early intervention is key. If a parent sees their child isn't meeting milestones at the age marker, the one previously in place for decades, they would know to seek assistance. This is a massive disservice to this generation and the ones to come. When instead we should be monitoring more closely and offering them more considering the two years they've had to endure.
Could it be possible, our children have been impacted by an entire society wearing masks which prevent them from being able to see the faces of those around them for an entire two years have any impact on this change? Masking an entire society has never been studied. If born at the beginning of the COVID-19 environment that is all these children have known for the most formidable season of their development and growth and our health experts are moving goal posts rather than looking into it further? Is it really that hard to consider the effects of social distancing, quarantining, isolation, lack of peer interaction, virtual learning, and all of the other mitigation strategies (that have never been studied on an entire population before) be doing more harm than good?
It’s time we demand “experts" and public health departments engage in the dialogue. We can no longer blindly trust recommendations and standards or "goal posts" that move. It's time we open the floor for debate on policy because their motive and practices have certainly proven to be no gold standard.
