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

[MaryMaryVeryContrary]

It really seems like we have a looming societal crisis in terms of child development and therefore the quality of the public in 10-20 years time. Experienced teachers across the board seem to be reporting an overwhelming increase in delayed, aggressive and disruptive children. I’m extremely worried about how this will impact society when they become adults - it seems (as a guess) at least a tenth of children will be incapable of work of any kind, and many more will need copious amounts of support to live any kind of responsible life.

AIBU to think we need an urgent public inquiry into this and what is going on? It seems to be the elephant in the room and anybody who tries to discuss it is shouted down.

I’m sure some of it is due to cuts in services but surely that can’t account for it all - it’s very sudden and extremely alarming.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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,

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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!

There is a huge lack of understanding, seen all the time on MN of how to parent ND and difficult children. There is also a deliberate twisting of 'gentle parenting' by some into permissive and damaging parenting. It is very very sad for the young people.

You really need to do some research. You are talking nonsense. There is evidence that there was in increase in the 90's which has evened out by the 2000's. So where do you think these children were?

Children are still being locked up today, just in hospitals and mental health wards.

'There was a five-fold increase in the UK during the 1990s alone, although there's evidence this rise had plateaued by the early 2000s (Taylor et al., 2013).' www.bps.org.uk/psychologist/autism-myth-and-reality

There was a recent report about how living near a Sure Start centre improved outcomes at GCSE level, the SS scheme wasn't perfect but it did achieve it's core aims.

Sadly even Labour just want to pour money into breakfast clubs so parents can work more, whilst still ignoring the vital 0-5 year development.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-68763942

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

Oh gosh! I remember DD constantly complaining about this... all the naughty kids had cinema afternoon, special lunchtime treats and even a prize giving! For just behaving as would be expected.
She hated school because she was one of the kids always underestimated (academically) and overlooked (quiet kid in the corner...). She's at uni now, pulling in 90-100% on her essays and exams. At school, I was told she'll fail GCSE's and A levels.

We are to liberal with our kids plus time constraints from parents, poor quality of food and to much screen time... to sum it up.

Agree. Lot of defensive stance on mn when it comes to parenting discussions. Like when it comes to discussing adhd. Absolutely ridiculous levels of adhd assessments and diagnosis at the moment. Wth is happening in today's society? 35 years ago we might have had one or two disruptive teens in secondary school in my class. None at all in primary. My neighbours two children are in a class where 10 are diagnosed SN or awaiting assessment. So clearly something is going terribly wrong.

But 2 of those kids probably wouldn't have been in Primary school back in the day, now there are no SEN places as so many schools have been closed so they end up in mainstream. I would expect that at some point though they will go to SEN provision.

We have huge expectations of children now and it's ridiculous. At Primary school I remember doing a long project on anything I wanted (mine was fish). I wasn't being prepped for Yr6 SATS I was just doing my project that no one was ever going to mark. When I was in Yr 1 (not reception, Yr1) the teacher would spend the whole afternoon listening to readers while the rest of the class played - the whole afternoon! They weren't worrying about Phonics screening or that next year we'd have Yr 2 SATs. Now children have to be able to use inference in their Yr 2 SATs. The Yr 6 SATs have GCSE level questions according to some teachers and are getting harder every year.

So are standards declining or have standards changed so much that expectations are now ridiculous - and children get left behind with no opportunity to catch up? We don't need an enquiry into children IMO, we need an enquiry into our expectations and a complete change in the curriculum to concentrate on English and maths (but not things like knowing what bloody 'modal verbs' are or a 'subordinating conjunction'). We need it to be simplified to concentrate on what kids need to know, much more time spent on getting kids reading and writing for fun, more time spent on making kids into well rounded human beings, more time on just letting them play and explore and develop.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-65570684

many reasons big a lot boil down to money.
There never was good support for SEN in education. Children who are now in mainstream and not coping would have been in special schools or units. Violent outbursts would not have been affecting children without SEN in mainstream. A lot of these children would be able to thrive in mainstream if the had the TAs specified innEHCP. No one in the schools fault with no money or child struggling

Then here seeing parents of children where there isn’t teaching due to needing to manage a child.

before any enquiry look at all recent government reports and see these are implemented. Although Covid definitely exacerbated things I was seeing posts from parents 2019 and before that as well.

Absolutely agree. Ex primary teacher who got out 3 years ago partly for this reason - horrific behaviour, totally out of control and we had low levels of PP / FSM so can't blame many of the socio-economic factors you hear bandied about.