Thousands of children not ready for school

[Bonsoir]

Here

[wordfactory]

I suspect there is a link between electronic devices and children's growth (or lack of) but I suspect that this is across the board and as prevalent among non-working parents as working parents.

[Bonsoir]

You can be a WOHP and be very vigilant about the people and organisations to whom you outsource childcare; and you can be a SAHP and be über-lazy about interacting with your children.

But I do think that adults are increasingly overwhelmed with distractions and cannot find the headspace to interact naturally with their children. Witness the other thread on the expense of "family days out". There are so many great things to do for free or practically nothing, but you need to get your head away from the incessant noise of marketing from commercial "attractions" to think about them and plan them.

[AuntieMonica]

i think it's just another stick to beat parents with


damned if you do, damned if you don't..............

[Bonsoir]

Oh really AuntieMonica? I find these reports very interesting and am incredulous - and distressed - at the state of some little children.

[slartybartfast]

some parents are crap - fact

[AuntieMonica]

and some parents will read this, bin all their 'electronic devices' and worry that they are creating badly behaved socially inadequate children because they let them watch TV or play a computer game.

i can only go on anedotal evidence here, my DD can use a pencil, we are getting ready for a day out in the park, has never touched a games console in her life...but she's not ready for school either.

that's why i yawn

[5318008]

also nothing about the care received by the children whose parents WOTH is explored in the article, just a good ole working parent bash

[slartybartfast]

does the article mention whether you work or not?

i didnt read that bit,
i just assumed it was lazy parenting.

[lljkk]

Sodding telegraph.
It's one child expert's opinion.
They AREN'T Five. Many of them are barely FOUR.
My parents both worked full time and I watched TV for long hours otherwise. We also went everywhere by car. This was normal, far as I can tell, among my own 4-7yo peers. Lots of TV-viewing and both parents working all hours.

But now kids have a Nintendo DS and a Wii and somehow all that problem solving and role play rots the brain when TV and indifferent babysitters didn't in the 1970s (sigh).

[slartybartfast]

agree, telegraph is crap also

[wordfactory]

But common sense tells me that too much time spent on electronic equipment rather than human interaction must have an impact on DC.

How could that not be so?

[5318008]

absolutely, couldn't agree more WF

[Bonsoir]

Absolutely any activity has (at the very least) an opportunity cost attached to it. Now if the opportunity cost of practicing the piano means you don't practice the violin, it doesn't matter. If the opportunity cost of playing electronic games means that you are not using language, that is a very different issue.

I rather like DVDs for my DD, however - she has a charming and quaint vocabulary and turn of phrase gleaned from BBC period drama.

[CatIsSleepy]

'Up to half of five-year-olds are not ready for school as working parents increasingly abandon traditional games, nursery rhymes, bedtime stories and lullabies, according to research.'

i don't see why they are pinning this on working parents

why are working parents more likely to use electronic devices or automatic baby walkers?

[5318008]

yy Cat, that is my point earlier

[Pelagia]

Isn't it an amazing coincidence, that just as we have all these cuts, we realise that actually lots of children with SEN don't really have SEN after all?
Thats ok then, we can remove all the funding, it was their parents own stupid fault all along. Grrr

[meditrina]

The article doesn't address SEN or cuts.

The amazing coincidence is that the quoted author has a new book out.

This "story" does however come up in the news regularly - there are versions in 1940/50s about the detrimental effects of the cinema upon family life, and the rise of delinquency. In 60s/70s it was the pernicious effect of television destroying children's play.

This is the latest iteration of the same trend. One day these children will be deploring what their own children are missing out on. And the human race will go on.

[slartybartfast]

oh i see, pictures workign parents literallyh throwing their children into bed.

oth. nurseries and child minders, where else would they be, are normally pretty good on nursery rhymes. it is part of their role

[Bonsoir]

meditrina - of course the article is about a new book. It is not investigative reporting!

[wordfactory]

Just because it's about a new book doesn't mean it has no worth.

It can still make us stop and think, surely?

[EggyAllenPoe]

i think technology and working vs non-working has crap all to do with it. i do think that expectations of what kids should be able to do for themslves have slipped back - and that it is lack of training rather than lack of general ability that explains the slip. Quite a lot used to be expected of our parents generation ..less of ours...still less of the coming generation.

certainly our local school notes the difference with kids that have done EYFS for a year and had lots of play-training(they can use the loo, dress themslves, hold a pen) and those that haven't.

[Bonsoir]

I agree with you that lack of training and lack of practice are the reason why modern children lack skills, but why are parents failing to train children these days?

[cory]

I am not sure that electronic devices and a lack of real activities are the only reason not all 4yos are not ready for school.

My nephews and nieces have grown up in Sweden where there is far less health and safety and far more hands-on activities for children. There you will frequently see a 4yo wielding a hammer or stirring the contents of a frying pan. Nurseries make sure children lend a hand in preparing their own meals, and there is plentiful exposure to outdoor activities. But still everybody I know there would be horrified at the idea of sending a 4yo to school. Not because they feel they have failed as parents but because their 4yos are....errr...4yos.

I often compare my ds with his cousin. Both of them were late developers, but ds rather earlier on all counts: language development, manual control, social skills etc.

His cousin started school at 6 when he had grown out of all the toddler traits. He thinks of himself as rather a bright boy because he coped so well with school at 6. This confidence means he works hard and is making very good progress.

Ds started at 4 at an age where a lot of his development was not finished (though more advanced than his cousin at that age). By the end of the first term he was already telling us that "I'm dim", "I can't do the things the teacher wants me to". His self-esteem has never recovered and he still thinks of himself as dim.

He would have been a lot better off playing in the snow and making biscuits at 4.

[DilysPrice]

Surely the children of working parents are much less likely to spend loads of time watching telly and playing computer games? OFSTED would come down like a ton of bricks on any child minder or nursery who let their charges watch as much TV and play as many computer games as their mothers allow - my DC certainly watch more TV when I'm in charge than they do with their nanny.

[Itsjustafleshwound]

It is interesting article - but just because the educational needs of the toddlers are met it doesn't mean that they are receptive to them.

Perhaps the skills are there (I don't think my DD and DS had vastly different stimulation) but I am convinced that it is a maturity issue for my son and that he will when he is ready and no amount of pushing by me, his nursery teachers or outside help is going to make him reach levels if he isn't ready for them.

I am so tired of this navel gazing, should-do type parenting - it doesn't help and just causes unnecessary strain in an already stressful time of preparing children for their big leap into formal education