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.

It’s actually like this at the prep school nursery my child will be going to when she turns 3. If you aren’t dry you aren’t admitted! But that is private.

It does depend on what your skills are because babies are happy when you are happy. When DD was little, I did:

• Baking
• Singing together
• Dancing together
• Messy play
• Taking her to playgroups
• Reading stories
• Going for lots of walks and feeding ducks, hunting for woodlice etc.
• Watching the baby club together and doing the activities

Her Dad enjoyed playing very simple board games (HABA makes some for 2+) and did more letter/number recognition stuff. He also likes introducing the TV programmes he loved as a child.

My Mum is a Supermum type and engages in a huge amount of imaginative play which I just cannot do, loads of painting and art, reading a lot of poetry, teaching her French and Welsh and no screentime whatsoever.

It was quite entertaining having a 2 yo recite lines from The Highwayman and phrases in 3 languages but I couldn't take the credit. 😂

Kids being taken to see older siblings at sports days whilst watching shite on their phone
This brought back a strong memory. A friend and I used to take our eldest children to a sport whilst our youngest, 2 years old would be there in their pushchair. We used to really engage with the little ones, talking about what their siblings did, about the birds, then getting them to play a mini version of the activity. It was a great time to give them 1-1 time without the older kids.

I now pass a sport club as I go to my own activity and sure enough, the majority of younger siblings are on tablets, whilst their parents are either talking between each other or on tablets/phone themselves.

I find it less and less common to see parents engaging pleasantly in discussions about their surroundings in public nowadays.

The survey has about a 5% margin of error. So it does still have validity.

This was just ordinary playgroup, but going on for thirty years ago when it was all that many children attended in preparation for school. There were far more of us SAHM then, and far fewer day nurseries, things were very different back then. But yes, no child was allowed to attend until they were reliably out of nappies (there were still a fair few accidents of course, because small children, but no children who couldn't take themselves to the toilet).

@vivainsomnia and that is what leads to developmental delays.

Sorry @NoGwenItsABoxingDayTrifle that response was meant for @CalamityK8.

Just to add, a typical day when DD was a baby looked like:

8am- Breakfast
8:30am- Baby club
9am- Get dressed
9:30am- Out to playgroup
11am- Park after playgroup
12pm- Pop into supermarket for lunch bits
12:30pm- Lunch at home
1pm- Nap
3pm- Dancing and singing together or baking or something crafty
4pm- Daddy home from work, Mummy off duty for a while!
8pm- Bedtime routine, loads of stories.
9pm- Asleep.

I think that applies to a bit younger than 26 months though, I was working full time when she was that age so she spent more time with my Mum.

I think you need to re-read. I was talking about the temptation for parents not to do so. That doesn’t mean none do. People are different.

It really is quite revolting to leave it until the child is 3, unless there are specific physical/ SEN reasons. I took a week off work to do it when DD was 2. It wasn't fun but it was important for her development and dignity.

My dc watched a lot of tv.
But they watched CBeebies and cbbc. They loved animals so I'd leave them watching a documentary on sharks or lions while I cooked the dinner or did a quick tidy up. They spoke really well!

Mine are young adults now but were out of nappies at 2, which was very much the norm 20 years ago. Nursery were very helpful. I think there's a lot of truth in the suggestion upthread that in recent years marketing by the likes of Pampers might have pushed the expected age upwards. I used disposables but my mother says she had us all trained around 18-24 months (half a century ago!) because she had to boil wash terry nappies, and the earlier we were out of them the better. I do remember being very surprised at the time when I read Little Children (American novel that was big in 2005ish) when all the 3 year olds at the playpark were in nappies.

I certainly don’t think it is ‘revolting’ to not be toilet trained until 3 years old. That’s an odd thing to say.

As long as it happens well in time for school, I do not see the issue

My DD was trained just after 2, DS was nearly 3. I was a SAHM at the time and he didn't have lots of screen time, at that age - he wouldn't have sat still long enough to watch anyway. He had speech delay and that was part of it - that he wouldn't/couldn't tell me he needed to go. I potty trained him, just before he started preschool and it wasn't a problem, and was as quick as teaching DD, he just wasnt ready at exactly the same age.

This is not the flex you think it is…😒

I’d take these ‘studies’ with a pinch of salt.

There’s a lot of rhetoric around at the moment amongst the media and politicians about ‘parenting’ and how it can’t be trusted and how it’s to blame for the ills of society. In my opinion that is a perfect distraction from what society and politicians are doing (or not doing).

There’s so much not being discussed here and it’s so easy to shout ‘lazy parenting!’ without taking into account so many other important societal factors. Poverty. COL. Lack of family support. Huge cost of childcare. Huge disparity between housing costs an s wages. Early years support stripped away. Child benefit cap and the subsequent increase in food banks. These stress all of this causes.

These are political choices made by our darling politicians.

There also other factors that I believe come into play such as toxins and ultra processed crap everywhere (including in schools). WiFi. 5G. Polluted waterways.

By blaming parents it gives the rest of us an ‘out’ too doesn’t it.

There are studies, plus on social media forums multiple teachers saying the same. But still some do not believe it. I have even seen parents casting doubt on the fact most children were toilet trained before three years old in the past. I guess denial is common.

Flex? Are you 13?

All of those things are positive.

I'd rather my children learn to use technology to benefit their lives in an appropriate way which doesn't detract from other activities.

If you can find an issue with children playing a phonics game, watching an episode of Number Blocks after school, talking to a relative on video or listening to an audiobook, then the problem is with you and I'd rethink sending them to school as they are all activities that take place in the average Reception classroom.

I work in a school and actually some of our most undeveloped children starting school are from nurseries. Our eyfs lead visits nurseries and says some of them are shockingly bad. Young staff who don't want to be there and no engagement with the children. No carpet/circle time, no phonics, no mark making etc.

@EsmeeMerlin that is really worrying

We potty trained our son a month before he turned 2. The other mums in our group said we were mad and we're amazed when it didn't go horribly wrong. Yes he needed more support and yes we had to put extra effort in for a bit longer (I just mean watching for cues, being sensible about taking a potty everywhere, helping him with trousers sometimes etc) but it was absolutely fine. He was excited to do it and loved not being in nappies anymore.

I honestly don't get the "wait until they do it themselves" mindset at all. For most it's a skill they need to learn and if they're supported, they'll nail it. It might take more than 2 days, but it doesn't mean they're not getting it.

Obviously this is a general thing, some kids are going to take longer for various reasons like Sen or digestive issues etc. But parents are genuinely scared to even try sometimes because they've heard so many horror stories and have such conflicting information thrown at them.

Do you understand how old the technology for wifi is?? WiFi has literally nothing to do with an increase in the reporting of school readiness. Nor has 5G while we’re at it.

@picturethispatsy ohhh I was kind of with you until you put "WiFi and 5G" in there with actual valid points like poverty.

It's fake news.

I don't think people are questioning the fact that "research" did/didn't happen. More so that you are drawing attention to a specific point which wasn't even the purpose of the survey. A survey is on me of the weakest research methodologies anyway. And the question of the paper is probably something along the lines of "what do people think" rather than specifically "what is the reason for children not being ready for school". These are completely different research questions and so your report of the study is misrepresenting the data.

I mean.
it does contribute to screen time

but that’s about it