Recent study of children joining reception class

[Liveandletlive18]

A recent study by kindred2 of a 1000 teachers resulted in finding a quarter of children today joined reception class when still in nappies. Many children are unable to climb a staircase or sit properly on the floor due to lack of exercise & muscle tone. The children used expressions more common in America such as trash & vacation due to excessive screen time. Teachers stated covid is no longer an excuse. They say a lot of this is due to busy parents working & having less time to interact with children & teach them basic skills. Is this a worrying trend.

Yes, I heard a child the other day speaking with a YouTube American accent, whilst her mum and nan had a London one.

It just lazy parenting and I'm tired of people using full time work as an excuse.

If you look at the demographics these typically AREN'T the kids going to nursery, they are the ones at home with SAHP but who are parking them in front of the tv.

Find it infuriating when paired with private school VAT as this is the education system Labour wants non-lazy parents to but their children in

It’s so terribly sad. I think we have to look back 30/40 years when things started to change significantly. The breakdown of the traditional family units/behaviours and increase in - essentially - kids having kids and being enabled by the state in terms of benefits/housing etc. not that you’d have wanted teenagers to be ill treated having got themselves or someone else pregnant however, we are in a situation now where 3+ generations have been brought up in households where not supporting yourself and expecting the state to provide everything for you is normal. It was inevitable there would be issues like this. Covid threw another bomb into this already embedded situation. And here we are.

They won't be the ones at nursery as they are not watching tv at nursery

All of mine went to nursery full time from 12 months until reception class. DH and I had to both work full time. Ours don't have American accents and were out of nappies by 2 years old (nursery did the majority of potty training).

I would say it's plain and simple lazy entitled parenting that's created the current situation if they are turning up at school like that.

Plenty of us ‘non lazy parents’ state educate our children, too - and I say this as someone who was privately educated.

I’d suggest the laziest parents are those who ship their kids off to boarding school.

Some have even suggested that the parents who can’t afford the VAT should be less lazy and earn more - which is as ridiculous as tying poor parenting to VAT on school fees.

Back to the OP - it’s revolting and people should do better than putting their kids in front of YT. Even CBeebies would be better, if they don’t have the capacity or care to interact personally.

Wow some massive assumptions here. One of the worst examples of this was a guy I knew who earned in excess of £250k as did his wife. Theor kids were permanently stuck in front of YT by either themselves or their Nanny as it was deemed a good way for children to be seen and not heard.

I expect the difference here is they will ultimately have gone to private boarding school where their delayed development will be sorted out behind closed doors.

It is tragic if this is how children are starting school, but it is not a class based issue. It is a parenting choice issue.

Well it’s obviously not working parents as their children are at nursery during the day with a full programme of learning, lots of daily physical activities and no tv. Seems you’re blaming SAHP of using too much tv during the day?

There is a rising percentage of children with additional needs, for whatever reason.

Also, a lot of autistic children I’ve worked with have had American accents, maybe from watching tv, but the ones I’m thinking of had involved and dedicated parents, who interacted with them well.

I think it’s poor parenting caused by inability to parent properly - not incompetence but poverty, lives that are stretched thin, low wages, poor housing, poor lifestyles, poor nutrition, poor education. I don’t think it’s anything to do with Covid or benefits as has been suggested. I think parents’ in some demographic bands cannot cope and live lives that are not conducive to ‘successful’ parenting. I think the absence of services - health visitors and sure start is also to blame

Saying that, it’s upsetting how many toddlers I see being pushed round town or the supermarket in their buggies, with mobile phones held up to their faces, watching goodness knows what and not taking in their environments at all.

i tend to agree with @babyproblems.

When my DC were small, (50 years ago) potty training, with the result of getting them out of terry towelling nappies was an automatic part of parenting toddlers. I had two within 18 months, and my nappy bucket was in permanent use! I was at home til the oldest was at school, then part time work so DH and I shared care. No family around, no affordable nurseries. No Surestart, no online help or information. Just a bit of common sense and effort. I don’t recall any four year old in their classes being in nappies, and we didn’t live in an affluent area.

As parents themselves, they worked, DGC went to nursery, so of course they were school ready.

I was fortunate to have kids in the sure start era, lived in London.
In most of the SS funded programs we were lucky use most were attended by middle class, reasonably affluent SAHM. Nothing wrong with that in itself, but v little engagement from what I suspect was the intended groups. And those were the children who really could have benefitted. The rest of us would have funded those activities anyway.

I know at least 4 adults in their 30s who have American accents.some of them mentioned that watching tv all the time
as kids is a reason when asked. a couple of them I suspect may have slight autistic tendencies. All of these adults are what I would describe as above average intelligence.
i don’t really think that aspect is a new thing.

Erm I’m a SAHM and not lazy at all? I’ll do the potty training rather than nursery. Don’t say all SAHM are like this and nursery is the holy grail. In my generation no one went to nursery and we turned out fine. Fed up of hearing how sending your child away 12h a day at 12m is the ideal.

Some of it will be for the reasons you list, undoubtedly, but I imagine some will also be due to developmental delays or medical conditions (diagnosed or otherwise).

It is tragic if this is how children are starting school, but it is not a class based issue. It is a parenting choice issue.

There will definitely be a correlation between socio/economic status and readiness for Reception. It has always been thus.

I blame the trend towards WFH while looking after your kids - I know on Mumsnet everyone who does this has children who sit quietly next to them doing improving activities but IRL I think it almost always involves a lot of screen time

My kids get screen time too, probably too much, but I have always used childcare while I am working because I just don't think it is particularly healthy to scrimp on wraparound care in order to use screen time as a babysitter

I do recognise that some people have no choice but plenty do have a choice.

Developmental delay seems a likely cause here, especially the american accent. Its common for autistic children to pick up american words and accents because they arent reading the social cues so they dont put so much value on using the words/accents of key people around them.

I think the report was actually asking about pupils being toilet trained and it included having occasional (not frequent) accidents as not toilet trained. So I am not sure it said that many were starting in nappies.

But that said, it's very sad that teachers are noticing a worry trend in child development

Well a PP seems to think being a SAHM and before that having an amazing nanny and not going to nursery at 12m is causing this issue so I’d say she’s not assuming it’s a class issue!

I was a SAHM, DS started nursery at age 3 (3 mornings a week) and then pre-school at age 4 (4-5) mornings a week, followed by primary 1 at age 5.
I feel like we got a good balance - I toilet trained (when DS was ready, at 2 and a bit) and also taught him loads of things (through play and in other ways), took him places (including toddler groups and singing sessions etc), but nursery also gave him skills I couldn't. My mum didn't send my sister or I to nursery, or socialise us much (other than being with her and interacting with other adults), and I definitely took some time to settle at school, so I didn't want that for DS. Unfortunately though, even with very tight budgeting, some mums just cannot afford to be SAHM's, or indeed want to give up work completely, so there will always be a need for nursery too. Parents should still be teaching their children when they are with them though, mostly through play. The only screen he had as a young child was TV or my laptop, with supervision, he didn't get a tablet or a phone until after many of his peers.

(If SAHM/mum bothers you, please feel free to replace with SAHD/dad or SAHP/parent, or any other SAHG/guardian).

The Kindred surveys are perceptions, not research results.
It's important to recognise this.

I think it is bullshit to say busy working parents are the problem. In my experience the children of working parents are not the ones who can't climb stairs and aren't toilet trained and watch too much YouTube, partly because they are at nursery from a young age.

The children who arrive at school with unusual delays are generally the ones who have mostly been at home with problematic families, I would guess.

And the ones calling everyone "bro" and talking about "trash" will be anyone with an older brother 😕.

Thank you. Just didn’t appreciate the previous post suggesting her children were ready because they went to nursery at 12 months. Irritated me! DD is going 4 mornings at 3!

Recently talked about this on a Safeguarding course - it's called 'Affluent Neglect' apparently- very sad