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

The school system is too intense from the moment they start reception. Just before my youngest started last sep (he has a birthday of 28 aug so was really young!) we were told - if your child still naps - stop them as we won’t let them sleep here, stop using a pushchair we don’t want to see them at school .
My ds needs his nap to process information and he has EDS so needs the pushchair- he has done half days so far all throughout reception then sleeps for 2 hours in the afternoon and then plays In the garden till dinner and he’s relaxed and happy I can’t imagine how taking away things that make his life easier would help he would get overwhelmed and exhausted!

Maybe not institutions (though there were some) but certainly more special schools than now.

My kids do a lot of holiday clubs and were in nursery from a young age due to our jobs. From my experience, it's the kids who spend their summer holidays stuck to screens or haven't been socialised from a young age who have the issues.

I think there have always been problems, and many people have a rose-tinted view of the past. No, parents in the 50s and 60s didn't ignore their children in favour of mobile phones; but many mothers did send their children out to play unsupervised whenever possible, so that they could get on with their chores (more time-consuming in the days of larger families and fewer labour-saving devices) or just watch TV or listen to the radio 'in peace'. And many fathers managed to get away with ignoring their children almost completely, or couldn't interact with them much even if they wished to, as they had to work long hours away from home.

This is very true. A lot of the work of entertaining kids was outsourced to the other kids on the road until pretty recently.

while schools lose TAs, pastoral care and ramp up class numbers through lack of teachers.

Class sizes and more inexperienced teachers - teachers teaching outside subject area are all rife at DD2 school - all the pastoral care been ripped out - bullying kids are on their own. Unsurprisingly many kids who coped in previous years are now really struggling.

IMO you've hit the nail on the head. Too many parents rely on screens to entertain and keep their children engaged. Too many parents want to be their child / children's friend.

I think there have always been problems, and many people have a rose-tinted view of the past. No, parents in the 50s and 60s didn't ignore their children in favour of mobile phones; but many mothers did send their children out to play unsupervised whenever possible, so that they could get on with their chores (more time-consuming in the days of larger families and fewer labour-saving devices) or just watch TV or listen to the radio 'in peace'. And many fathers managed to get away with ignoring their children almost completely, or couldn't interact with them much even if they wished to, as they had to work long hours away from home.

As regards it being good for babies to be cuddled and talked to: yes, this seems obvious nowadays, but quite a bit of medical and childcare advice in the past was that babies should not be given too much attention; that if they were, it would ruin both their character and their digestion; and that they should be fed regularly every four hours, and ignored if they cried at other times.

However, I would agree that things are worse now than a few years ago. This is largely, I think, due to economic decline. It's not just cuts in services, though these play a part. It is often said that young people today are likely to be the first generation in a long time to be worse off than their parents. Their younger brothers and sisters are likely being even more affected by the stress, insecurity and deprivations.

FWIW, studies have shown that until the end of the last century, IQ scores were steadily rising (the so-called Flynn effect), but have plateaued or slightly decreased in developed countries in the present century, possibly related to the effects of the banking crisis.

And lockdown and its consequences have doubtless not helped.

Also, children spend far longer in formal education than in the past, making certain problems more noticeable. Early preschool education is an excellent thing; pressures to meet assessment standards at 'baseline', the Year 1 phonics check, and Key Stage 1 SATs at age 7 are less excellent, and may result in negative attitudes to school in children who are still too immature to deal with all the pressures to sit still and study. (Not to mention all the pressures on the teachers!) And in the past, children who were relatively immature, poor at sitting still, and not fully toilet trained might be kept at home or in a nursery setting until well into their 6th year; nowadays this is more difficult. At the other end of the age scale, pupils, who in the past might have left formal education at 15 or 16, now need to study and take exams until 18. This is a very good thing for many, but it does mean that some anti-school, hormonal, aggressive adolescents, who in the past would have left as early as possible, now have to stick around, and may be disruptive, and bully other pupils and even teachers. It also means that socially anxious pupils, who don't cope well with the bustling school environment, and may be bullied by the former type of pupil, and might previously have voted with their feet, also have to stick around, often to the detriment of their mental health. All these issues may improve as schools, policymakers and pupils themselves find ways of dealing with the changes (just as they adapted to the introduction of universal secondary education in the last century); but right at the moment, there are definite adjustment problems,

Absolutely this!! Govt cuts to education and mental health creating a perfect storm of failing support systems. 2 year waits for camhs while schools lose TAs, pastoral care and ramp up class numbers through lack of teachers.

I didn't say I did? I was very clear that this is what I encounter.

However you are wrong about all of it, I have and currently do look after children from deprived backgrounds including those eligible for the 2 year funding (the old one not the new one for working parents) and those in receipt of pupil premium.

You're absolutely right. Lockdown matters a lot here.

We pursued a policy where the provision for many young kids, for months, was just to shove them in front of a device. There literally wasn't anything else for a time. For older ones, so much moved online. That genie isn't going back into the bottle easily, if at all.

Have a look at the book ‘Toxic Childhood’ by Sue Palmer. It’s quite an old book now but highlights a lot of ways in which modern life can affect children

Second this - really good book; I read it years ago before I had my own DD, but it’s still very pertinent.

Yes - I think all this.

I suspect screen and parenting fashions may also be in there - but I also think they may be a symptom of lack of time and energy from parents and confidence and support.

Traffic and stranger danger fears means it can be hard to let young kids play out but other parents judgements can also be very undermining - our kids were roaming later than us but even by mid secondary many of their peer parents were horrified letting go into town by themselves - ours still went but we were judged.

From my own experience our school went downhill when they introduced something called a ‘positive discipline behaviour model.’ It meant that bad behavior from naughty kids would be ignored, however they would be overly praised when they displayed good behaviour. It sounded great initially but it meant that a naughty kids could do stuff that would be ignored by the teacher, but if a good kid did the same thing they would be punished. So none of the kids knew what would get them in trouble and the naughty kids could run amok and bully with impunity.
Playing the behavior guessing game led a toxic, unfair and unpredictable environment, which led to anxious and stressed children.

I tried to discuss this with the head teachers but they insisted that this approach was backed by research while also acknowledging that anxiety among the students was rising. I don’t know about other parts of the world but i witnessed this chaos spread from school to school in my area so it’s not an isolated observation.

Thank you, you have explained exactly what I wanted to.

I also want to add that the non verbal children, autistic children were often not in mainstream schools.

I can however remember children that looking back, absolutely were autistic and ADHD.

We are facing huge cuts to the education budget where I live. A budget that's already shit as it is without losing even more teachers, more support, more funding. In my children's school, there are 4-7 children in every class with some form of diagnosed SEN. Much more if you consider those on waiting lists or without a diagnosis. This is mainstream school, there's nowhere else for them to go. How can they keep cutting budgets and expect teachers to cope with the high level of additional needs? Its not sustainable. Schools are sinking and the kids are suffering for it. Inclusion is great but it should be about getting it right for every child. Mainstream is not right for every child. We need more SEN schools, more mainstream schools with SEN units, these kids just need more so they can actually thrive and not just muddle along or burn out completely.

I've got 3 boys, all have ASD. There's also ADHD, OCD, epilepsy, asthma, allergies, speech delay... I think I'm a good parent. I don't work anymore because I physically can't with how much care my boys need. Screens aren't used for regulation in our house at all. We have days out, we play in the garden, I set up sensory activities for them. I try my damndest to help them learn basic life skills. Their diet is shit but I can't do much about that, they like to help me cook but they don't eat any of it. One is already on shakes for weight gain. I'm sure poor parenting is a factor in some cases, but I do think most of us are doing our best. I hope I am anyway.

My daughter is now in the same high school I was I'm during the late 90s. It seems so much better now than it was then. Just from the people in my form group, one went to young offenders several left before the end of year 11, some excluded some just dropping out. There was an incident where a child was throwing chairs and hitting a teacher. Regular fights between pupils. There was a lot of smoking at the back of the field and there was drug use. I was friends with a group of girls in year 9 that I quickly moved away from when they were getting picked up by young men in cars and going for sex. What we would call child sexual exploitation now but no one really cared then.
There has been an increase in SEN, I think covid has a lot to do with this as will less time with family and less time outside. However, feral teenagers and poor teen mental health has always been a problem its just taken more seriously now.

My personal opinion is that we’re all literally staring at the problem right now. Smartphone addiction pulling parents attention away from their children.

I don’t think it’s any one thing but tired stressed parents, tired stressed teachers, lack of funding in early years, terrible school curriculum.
My parents were pretty uninterested in me, they made me behave with threats of violence and I was expected to be quiet if we were out somewhere, we would definitely have been given screens to shut us up if they had existed. I think shit parenting has always been a thing, it’s just more judged and more obvious now.
One of my DCs has ASD and can’t cope for more than a couple of days a week at her primary. She would have been fine in the primary school I went to. Smaller classes, no testing and generally a far more relaxed environment.
TBH there seems to be a decline in the behaviour of some adults so it’s not really surprising we are seeing the same in kids.

Also, I’ve recently finished reading Johann Hari’s book ‘Stolen Focus’, about screen/social media addiction and, while it’s not perfect as a book, it does explain a lot about why we are where we are right now - alarming but enlightening, especially on the power of the algorithm and how screen use essentially rewires developing brains.

I started teaching in 1996. I had kids with high support needs and complex dx in my classes back then, but the curriculum was far more flexible and it was far easier to meet the needs of the majority of the class. The rise of MATs with their inflexible policies and teaching by numbers curriculum has made it very difficult to motivate and engage those who would have been fine.

There is definitely something going on. I don’t teach myself any more, but I’m still very involved in local schools (volunteer and governor) and it is quite striking how things have changed for the worse in the few years since I had my own class.

Privately, the many teachers in my circle put it down to a combination of two time-poor working parents, excessive screen time from birth, poor diet (UPFs) and more premature babies surviving with additional needs. But they’d never dare to air these opinions in public as they are so unpopular, with many parents immediately becomIng defensive if you suggest that any of these factors might be feeding into the issue. There is a lot of wilful denial going on I think.

I agree that we are probably storing up problems for the future, with many children never reaching their full potential.

When I was 14 it was suggested I be sent to a residential unit because of my difficulties being so severe (selective mutism , school refusing, obsessive behaviour anorexia etc). I was drugged up on Prozac and something else which I don’t remember the name of. Seen by a psychiatrist and social worker weekly, everyone begging me to tell them the reason I was ‘depressed’ . Being shouted at for lying when I said I didn’t feel depressed or unhappy - that I just felt weird/strange/floaty (disassociation)/unable to talk sometimes etc etc.

They wanted me to go for ‘at least 6 months’ and told me my family wouldn’t be allowed to visit as that wouldn’t help - I’ve since seen the place they wanted me to go to as teenagers were abused there . My parents refused to allow it. As a young adult I was diagnosed with ASD . I know at my school there were a handful of us all feeling the same. Now all of my dc have ASD and many friends have multiple dc with a wide ranger of difficulty ranging from speech delay, global development delay, ASD etc. something needs doing and it does need investigating so that plans can be made for future support

Yes, junk food, too. Many parents don’t have the faintest idea how to prepare a wholesome meal.

I was reading a thread on Gransnet just the other day where people were really worried about their GCs development. Many of them are still wearing nappies and taking bottles at 4 or 5 years old. Many can't use knives and forks at 10 years old and use their fingers to eat. Most of them have little concept of how to socialise. I agree with OP. It sounds like a timebomb.

I honestly believe its down to wishy washy parenting. You can't discipline them anymore. They know their teachers can't touch them and their parents won't either.

People can be outraged and cry abuse all they like but it's a fact that children's behaviour has gone downhill in recent years. I'm obviously not advocating caning the little sods but knowing you'd get a smacked backside when you got home did tend to discourage most of our misbehaviour.

I saw a kid several weeks ago screaming 'you cunt' at his mother and telling her to fuck off, he was going to smash her phone and dad will get it for him, over wanting something in poundland. He must have been about 12.

Now I'd not even have got as far as fuck off before my arse was glowing. I'd never dare speak like that to my mother! And if I had been stupid enough to go to my dad after that, I'd have got another one from him. Kids have no lines that they dare not cross anymore. Because what happens if they do? Nothing. They lose their phone for a day. Big deal. Parents just don't parent anymore.