To think there needs to be a public inquiry into child development

There's a huge link with neuro diversity and older fathers. Age of first time parents also increasing

I read a study not long ago about neurodiversity being part of the evolutionary print . Not as in how humanity will end but as a step to the next human species . I wonder if there is some sense to it . As you say in my child’s very small school o er 10% of the children are neurodiverse

Not sure if this is relevant, but the age of first time parents is increasing. Research shows a big link between developmental conditions like autism, ADHD and having an older father.

Could older fathers be a contributing factor? Would love to see this studied more

My dad was never home between 7-7 and when he was on weekend he hid behind the newspaper. My mum was constantly reading library books, and yes she did take us to the library, we weren’t allowed in the children’s section as she was only interested in her needs. Same as screens really, we weren’t allowed to interact or we were put out to play in the garden if we annoyed them too much. We played with the neighbours kids, usually in the gardens, when older a little out the front, but not the roaming the streets childhood. So there’s some social interaction there, so maybe it’s not screens it’s the lack of playing out ?

Actually, @MaryMaryVeryContrary, I would say the last thing we need is a public enquiry - it will take ages to set up, drag on for years taking evidence, eventually it will produce a report and then the government of the day will drag their heels on implementing it.

What is needed is for the government to assemble a small group of experts, to produce recommendations within a month or two, with a pledge that the recommendations will be implemented, and funded.

I’m pondering benign neglect. Two parents working as standard. When those parents are around they are busy with other things so still not around. It strikes me that they are key points in a child’s life. Not interacting enough in those early stages must be damaging to future development.

Then add in everything else we know…

To me it’s fairly obvious that primary school funding and upper management is the issue, or at least a really significant one. I have witnessed many of these ‘problematic’ children only having issues at school rather than at home, and then the behaviour evaporating when they enter ‘better’ schools. Children will mirror each other’s behaviour, they will absorb the class culture and then there is little the class teacher can do to derail that culture.

I've been out for playdates with 2 toddler mums where when going to a cafe for lunch they just whacked out a phone /tablet and stuck YouTube on for their kid as apparently that's the only way they'll eat anything. So no interaction with anyone else sat round the table including my child of the same age, and no learning about sitting in a cafe and how you behave without a screen to occupy you. Makes it difficult for me as my DD has never used a phone or tablet and wants to know why she can't watch peppa pig in a cafe too. Presumably children managed to eat before they had screens, I don't remember it being an issue when I was a kid.

I think we need to take a massive look at a generation of kids being raised by screens, pandered to by parents who refuse to support schools in dealing with poor behaviour and who are fed a diet of mostly food that isn't even food.

If the West aren't careful, we are going to continue in this decline that much of the World isn't seeing.

IMO the education system in this country is not fit for purpose. It's why I home ed my DC.

Similar experience here.

I sat in local library working my way through a stash of likely books to borrow.

A woman with push chair was browsing her way round the Crime section. Small child strapped into the buggy, hood pulled over, with iPhone up to their face. Completely cut off from the outside world & any interaction with other people. Just sad to see.

Childrens’s library just 30 feet away, a world of books & stuff to explore.

Our Librarian told me that when a school class visits the childrens’s library, it is all too clear the children who have been brought to the library before by parents/childminders as they crack on with looking around for books of interest.

I think poor parenting has a big influence - not telling kids “no” anymore, giving them too much choice, over explaining things they probably don’t understand, too much screen time and arranged activities.

Kids don’t use their brains as much now because they don’t need to and they aren’t given the same chance to make their own mistakes/problem solve. It’s all very sad.

I'm betting phones and tablets are a big part of it.

I agree. And buggies with tablet holders-wtf?

My 6 year old year 1 has 2 classes with about 60 kids. They're are 3x121 jn each class and many others with clear needs going through assessment.

As someone who has worked with children of all ages during my career, I strongly suspect that any inquiry would come back with two main points; decline in parenting and overuse of screens. There would of course be other reasons and causes but in my experience these really are at the heart of the matter.

Personally, I would be very interested to investigate the link between the two;
how much has technology contributed to a decline in parenting.

There are parents putting an iPad in front of their child every meal time, I don't think we need a public enquiry to figure out why so many kids have zero attention span. I'm sure they'll be lots of parents ready to defend screen time and tell me I should be burnt at the stake, but let's set aside our own feelings and be honest.

Ironically the schools are giving them iPads from an early age for school work, it's an utter joke,

OK - well you clearly haven't read it because it does but I'm confused, because you seem to be talking about medicore parenting, and parenting at this level can cause speech delay etc but doesn't cause a full blown disability.

If it's parenting then you should be able to undo it with therapy, ie the American Early Intervention model, except in cases of extremely severe neglect e.g. Genie / Romanian orphans - children who have been left without any interaction at all in appalling conditions for years of their lives to the point that it's actually caused irreversible brain damage.

Are you seriously suggesting that screen time, lunchables, and lax boundaries are the same thing as this level of neglect and deprivation? I don't buy it. For sure there are neglectful parents in Britain. And our social services are underfunded and so children fly under the radar but if I understand correctly you're talking about children who wouldn't be considered neglected by social services.

I thought we were talking about an increase in children who exist between these states - they can't cope with a mainstream classroom and so (the assumption, which may not be correct, is) may not be able to cope with work in adult life. But these children usually do much better in an environment which meets their needs, which doesn't seem to be what you're talking about.

100% agree.

The increase that was needed in possible ND/MH awareness in e.g schools went too far. So you have DC in schools or on school rota who only attend an hour or few hours a week. Who don't have to attend lessons they don't like, don't have to engage with teachers they don't like and have a card to enable them to leave lessons or school when they feel overwhelmed or just pissed off.

And I work with admittedly, an extreme minority of DC involved with the criminal justice system and have been horrified by the lack of actual tangible consequences for these kids that stems from what should have been a useful way to help vulnerable kids with neurodiversity, trauma or suffering from criminal exploitation but has led to a widespread mismanagement of these kids, with little or zero boundaries or consequences put in place.

Which is what people, particularly those under the age of 18 NEED. You can't expect anyone to change their antisocial, abusive or criminal behaviour if the 'system' continually treats them as victims or vulnerable and does little to put boundaries or consequences in place.

I lol sometimes at the MC Mumsnetters who tell a worried Mum that their DC who's been arrested for shoplifting will receive severe consequences in the court.

Kids found shoplifting, assaultng kids or adults or even Police or in possession of knives, are often dealt with out of court 🙄 let alone there be the severe negative consequences that MNetters think are happening.

And even if they're the few given a youth caution or even a youth rehabilitation order (community sentence) they'll likely have a lovely worker taking them Go-karting, to McDonald's or whatever and those aren't bad things in themselves, but they're seen as rehabilitation and they're really not in most cases.

Hence the reoffending rates. Many of us live in cities with shocking rates of youth violence and murder. It's rare those youths aren't previously known to the criminal justice system.

Totally agree with you OP, also with @Differentstarts re the over diagnosis of ADHD, I know people hate you saying that but it is the elephant in the room and has to be faced plus all the other labels parents seem to want to have put on their children these days. You only have to read the threads on here about parents queuing up to obtain a diagnosis, which I suspect in certain cases is inspired by the extra £500 a month paid out to diagnosed children, which would be far better used working out scientifically as to why so many children appear to have problems.
I also think it’s a mistake to mix children with disruptive problems into main stream school, it disrupts the whole class and the teacher then spends the whole time concentrating on the disruptive pupils instead of being able to do their job and teach the children who want to learn.
If parents were to teach their children to have respect and contain their language in the home we would hopefully have less filthy mouthed teenagers roaming the streets. You only have to see the derogatory language used on here daily.
Its obvious there is something seriously going wrong, it could well be linked to smart phone, screen use, and general social interaction, how many parents would be happy taking their children on holiday for a week leaving phones, screens, at home, I suspect not many!
Something needs to be done, and soon or we will be living in a very unstable unruly population in fifteen to twenty years from now.

There is a lack of studies but recent stats indicate approx 17% of the population are impacted, with the below life long issues.

@Windthebloodybobbinup

Not just alcohol. I think drugs is a major major issue. I’m fed up of people saying weed is nothing. Here in the U.S. the narrative is that weed is better for you than alcohol.

The problem with drugs is that your brain is encased in a fatty layer and deposits of what you consume remain in this fat. It affects the neurological system and I am quite sure these same deposits are in fat elsewhere in the body and passed to the baby while in utero.

My children behave very differently if I can keep them on a very clean diet of fruit, vegetables and high quality protein (wild fish from pollution free water, chicken raised properly, grass fed beef and proper lamb. They go to their father every other week and it’s hot dogs, pizza, peanut butter jam sandwiches and cereal with milk. I am left with no choice but to medicate my children. No one in the family court system thinks diet matters. I have one child in particular who I’d love to leave with the judge who told me I was being controlling by demanding their father not feed the child crap. Literally the child wets themselves when they come to my home and I start the detox process because they are so hyperactive after eating processed food full of additives for a week.

Back when I was studying the child development module of my paediatric training (1970s, I am really old) we were told that we should advise parents not to have the TV / radio on as background noise because it could contribute to speech delay. The child needs to hear your voice and see your face in order to learn to speak, process and converse.
I have a friend who is a retired speech therapist who is just in despair at the damage screens are causing, not just to speech development, but to all levels of interaction with other humans.
It is an addiction and it is evident that for many children, during the time they are separated from their screen, they are experiencing withdrawal symptoms and are distressed, angry, unable to cope.