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

Okay it's fine, you can forget this discussion. I'm not currently looking for a job and have never claimed benefits.

You can relax. Get back to the OP's question.

There’s loads of WFH roles now.

I'm not claiming benefits and never have.

Or we could write a letter to the British Medical Journal, signed "from the Mumsnetters". I would be willing to write and send it. I'm a biomedical research scientist.

Could we invite the Labour shadow education secretary on to discuss this with us? I think it would be good to do that.

I can't go into buildings though, because they are all lit by LED lights. That is quite limiting.

If the world would create a wfh role where I literally never need to go to any other building I would like that a lot.

I'm a SAHM at the moment btw, so not actually looking for work or claming benefits.

I think there are likely very many jobs that wouldn't involve LED lights or screens, that would be fine for you though?

That doesn't mean you 'can't work', just that you can't work in certain roles.

This is exactly the problem. We can't move for videos and gifs and images and things that are intended to shock. Even if you look at the home page of the BBC iplayer, it's full of really quite shocking stuff. The days where you could rely on the BBC to produce "Open all hours" and "Wogan" are long gone.

In the old days a pop concert saw people holding up candles at the very most and now the pop concerts have crazy bright lighting.

In our house we've had to go back to the 80s way of living to dial my DC back to a normal state and it's working remarkably well.

Screens are out here now, except for bake-off type stuff. We're using books and playing the piano and going for walks and it is so much better, But when I tell schools this they say "cannot meet need".

They just can't accommodate kids who can't be constantly babysat by screens in school.

You are correct my DC is medically complex including more than one tube and machines, ASD, CP, speech delay
was placed in a mainstream primary and now going to be forced in to a main stream secondary.

I think there is an increase in children with quite complex additional needs in main stream schools who would have previously gone to specialist schools this lets down these children as they often get insufficient support, but also lets down the other children whose education is often disrupted.
I used to work in early years, when I started in the early 2000s we played and talked to the children did crafts and organised games. By the time I left we had so much paper work and observations to do the actual interaction with the children was suffering.

I also don’t think it helps that some men seem to not care anymore about the implications of walking away from their family home and their children.

I think there are higher numbers of children being bought up with crap fathers (or completely absent ones) and some of these children will have no consistent positive male role model in their life either.

I think both parents play a very important role in the individual growth of a child (emotionally and socially) and when one of them barely shows an interest in their child (99.9% of the time it’s the father) then that has to have some impact on their self worth, their confidence and in turn their behaviours.

The same goes for children who are raised in the homes of unhappy marriages and dysfunctional relationships. It all has an impact.

This is exactly what I am seeing too. Secondary schools used to be quiet academic places that were great for ND kids.

Now they're all videos and excitement and roll playing and it drives my ND kid crazy.

Most women now drink some alcohol.

We aren't being given the public health warnings that ANY alcohol after CONCEPTION can damage the embryo.

I thought drinking rates had fallen in the younger generations - I see media and surveys and https://alcoholchange.org.uk/alcohol-facts/fact-sheets/drinking-trends-in-the-uk saying this - and DH in HE says it's noticeable in his students more don't drink at all and one that do drink less.

Also my youngest is 15 and I absolutely were told no alcohol at all in pg- as were mothers with younger kids than mine - though I concede that may be area dependent.

Inclusivity is largely just a party line to stop providing adequate provision to SEN children. I know many SEN children who just aren’t capable of being alongside “typical” children (for want of a better phrase). For some it just isn’t fair to either the SEN child who has unrealistic expectations placed on them, the consequences of non-compliance they don’t understand and the NT kids who’s learning is disrupted and safety threatened. They might all be in the same room but they aren’t adding value to either one.

There must be some Muslim countries where hardly anyone drinks where you could easily do a comparison if your theory is alcohol based? What about vitamin deficiencies, chemicals in the environment, chemical build up in the body etc etc, ageing parents, the list can go on and on, vaccines anyone… - people have a lot of “theories”.

And the fact that the younger generation is useless - well that kind of attitude can be traced back to the Middle Ages. Pretty sure there is an appropriate Chaucer comment to that effect somewhere…

@Windthebloodybobbinup

Gold star.

I agree with the theory that a large chunk of the current cohort of kids have FASD.

Most women now drink some alcohol.

We aren't being given the public health warnings that ANY alcohol after CONCEPTION can damage the embryo.

Start a MN thread saying this and you'll get abuse left right and centre.

No one wants to acknowledge that they may have harmed their child.

But it's not the mothers' fault when we aren't being told this vital information!

The only ones campaigning on this issue are adoptive parents because that's socially acceptable.

Lots of countries have more freedoms for their children and have diff ways of life but the actual stays on SEN especially asd is that it has increased everywhere and we are no where near the top statistically when factoring only children.

Yes it matters, I have one of those children.
it matters in a sense but not in a matter of other peoples judgements on what a child should be able to do and they the main reason people have stated is parents fault.
we can’t change our children we can only help them the best we can achieve to the best of their ability and that is an achievement when they make those little steps.

I do still think that the biggest problem in society though are people stuck in the cycle of abuse, like yourself. But you wouldn't create a thread on that because it would mean suggesting you don't have DC rather than parents of disabled children that are genuinely doing their best, rather than the people who think you can smack a disability out of a person.

I don't demand more resources, actually, for my child. I request equity. I shouldn't have to do so.

The bigger problem facing early years workers is staff retention, recruitment, staff ratios and ultimately, funding.

More kids to fewer staff members means they are almost certainly more like to meet children with additional needs.
More parents must work in order to keep roof over head, means more children in child care.

Fewer special schools that Tony Blair had insisted he was going to build but never materialised and fewer special school places means more visibily disabled children in mainstream.

BTW, both Tory and Labour want more "inclusive" mainstream education for SEN children - so put your blame where it belongs, thank you.

And yes, more ND adults getting together thanks to online algorithms = more ND babies.

I don't think the conversation needs to be shut down entirely, but if I hear one more simple voice suggesting I give my disabled child too much screen time and that is the reason she cannot speak, I am going to vomit.