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, this was a major contributing factor as to why they were closed - the ‘wrong’ people were using them.

Discouraging parents for forcing too much academics on children at too young an age leading to them starting school already disengaged from learning, or seeing learning as an activity they do to get approval from adults rather than a self-led process.
@MrsSunshine2b
I'm not sure I agree with this, I have a friend who works in a reception class and she said that so much time is being wasted in class by having to teach children things that previous generations were expected to learn before school age, example... Can you all hang your coat and bag by your name in the cloakroom. Resulting in lots of children not being able to do this because they can't recognise their name.
Perhaps I was lucky that I had a toddler who enjoyed learning and I agree that stressing an uninterested three year old out doesn't benefit anybody but a gentle nudge to learn the basics is a good thing.
Also I was talking to a friend about this thread earlier who recently had a baby to get her views and was surprised to hear that many of the services I used twenty years ago have disappeared from my area (children's library, Library story time/singing playgroups, play in the park, church playgroups that arranged visits by coach to zoos and museums. A real shame in my opinion I would have been so lonely without them being a single parent.

I work in several schools and this is a trend across a lot of them and it is getting worse. One of the thought relates to a lack of a dining table as well, that children aren’t taught to sit up at the table and skills and muscles used for those fine motor skills aren’t being developed from those gross motor skills. It’s sad really sad. Some of the children in some of the classes literally cannot sit on the floor without “lounging”.

But recognising their name isn't the same as trying to teach them to read.

It's one word that they should see everywhere from babyhood.

I didn't "teach" DD anything before primary school, we did lots of activities together, talked about everything, read LOTS of stories, and I answered any questions she asked. She recognised her name and most of her letters and numbers, knew her colours, 2D and 3D shapes (the basics like rectangles, cylinders, spheres and cubes, not dodecahedrons and hexagonal prisms 😂) and that sort of thing just from living in the world and being involved. She immediately picked up reading as soon as they started to teach phonics in a structured approach.

P.S. I'm not sure why your friend told you that. DD was an enthusiastic participant in twice weekly Rhyme Time at the local library, attended Story Time at the local second hand book shop every Sunday rain or shine, and went to 3 different church playgroups over the years, although we're not religious. I'm not sure if you mean "play in the park" as an organised thing? But she did go to play in the park every day I didn't go to work, and still goes after school if it's sunny.

I agree. Children should experience boredom and learn how to cope with boredom.

I work in childcare, and I don't understand where this is all coming from. I have never met a child yet who has gone to school in nappies. With the exception of children who are send.

i have a child in reception and I do not believe a quarter of children are starting reception in nappies. Not sure where you have got this information from. The school my children go to won’t accept children into the school nursery who aren’t potty trained, let alone a quarter in reception.

When our eldest started pre-school nursery at 3, we were told that if she wasn’t potty trained in time, she wouldn’t be able to attend her full funded hours and they would slowly build it up while she potty trained. She actually was potty trained so it was fine but I remembered this info a few years later when we sent our next daughter to the exact same nursery.

except.. the policy had changed. Too many parents had complained for years about it being discriminatory and demanding their children be accepted. It’s a council/school nursery so they were forced to change this requirement.

in my first daughters intake. Out of sixty children, every single child was potty trained. Because it was a requirement. They did have one wee boy in nappies, but he had additional needs and obviously would be exempt from that rule.

but this year, when we sent my youngest to the EXACT same nursery, with a three year difference, they’d been forced to stop saying this was a requirement or expectation. When j mentioned it I was told ‘we can’t tell people that anymore, local authorities have been really clear that parents were kicking off every year about it so now we actually have to tell you that potty training isn’t at all necessary before they start’

ANYWAY. Out of sixty children, they had only seven children start who were not still fully in nappies. Those seven were not necessarily potty trained either (my wee girl was still prone to accidents and I wouldn’t have called that potty trained but they said she was counted as such).

So in a four year gap, out of sixty new starts you go from 1 child in nappies because he has additional needs , to this year there being 53 children still in nappies. And the only difference is that the nursery were no longer allowed to insist that parents potty trained their child before they started.

Honestly I’m usually not a judgemental parent but I thought that said it all really :(. And it was so detrimental to the nursery. Staff were so clearly struggling to manage. They had to have two staff every day whose sole assignment was changing kids nappies. Staff didn’t have the same time to engage as they had before because they were just run off their feet. I know how hard it is to change just one three year old out of wet clothes and find them new ones, or how long it takes to change a toddlers nappy. And I don’t have to wear full PPE to do it on top.

but I just felt like, it’s sad that if you aren’t ALLOWED to insist people do these things for their own children, and you aren’t allowed to make it inconvenient for them to not bother , by saying you won’t get to use nursery funded hours, then it’s like everyone just didn’t bother.

I have just read this survey and I can't see anywhere where is says that a quarter of children are starting school in nappies. The closest I could see was that 91% of teachers reported having at least one child in the reception class not toilet trained. Where did it say 25% of children, maybe I missed it?
I would also add that this is a qualitative study (asking questions rather than using recorded data), where 1000 teachers answered questions on a combination of a yougov survey and an open online survey. As a statistician I would take it with a large pinch of salt. I get very tired of newspapers misrepresenting studies. There has been a lot of this sort of stuff about poor parenting since covid and it generally turns out to be anecdotal but people love to get up in arms about it. I remember one a couple of years ago making a big hoo-ha about children not being able to use a knife and fork because of lockdown and when I looked into it it was based on one teacher saying she saw one child struggling to use her cutlery.

Are they? Some are, but some have nannies..or childminders.

@Bobafett2020 I'm wondering if you have read the same survey. I tried to share it & it didn't work. If you Google the words latest kindred survey of 1000 teachers say 1 in 4 children starting reception are not toilet trained. There is plenty of evidence along with mentioning other reasons for children not being 'school ready' 🤔

It defines not toilet trained as having occasional (not frequent) accidents though. Not specifically wearing a nappy.

I've worked in an infant school for over a decade and few younger chikdren have always got caught short on occassion. A lot are quite scared of the toilets, or scared to ask to go in the first term. Some are also fine until they get a heavy cold.

This survey suggests that's happening more than 5 years ago there are more complex sen chikdren in mainstream too but I do think the headline wording is misleading.

No its not, and I hate it, although we have a wonderful nursery. I cherish the non-nursery days I have with DC and wish I could just send him 2 days a week instead of 4.
I'm finding potty training a trial as obvs some days he's at nursery and I can't leave him to run around barebum.

Ah yes sorry I see it, thanks, although as previous poster mentioned having mishaps is quite different to wearing nappies. I stand by the other points as well.

Looking at the wording it also includes those with trouble wiping and those with constipation issues that leak.

Both of which are common issues in the younger side of school starters.

Very common for autistic children

My kid has ASD and didn't develop the nerve to tell them they needed a wee until aged five.

However, they had regular reminders to use the toilet and even though there were accidents at nursery was out of nappies at three. I don't know of any real reason why a child should still be in nappies at five other than a severe developmental delay.

The thing about muscle tone is really scary though. We used to be able to send mine on laps around the park because they had so much excess energy. And they had one of those three wheeled scooters they bombed everywhere on. You just don't seem to see that anymore. These kids are being pushed in pushchairs instead. Mine used to insist on walking to toddler group because they were fiercely independent. Now, they all seem to be lethargic in a pushchair before they've even got there!

Same problem in our school. Children starting school without being toilet trained or able to feed themselves and don't know how to interact with others. It's quite frightening to see the effects modern life is having on children.
I know I'll be flamed and I know there are exceptions to the rule with some children having development issues etc but for the most part it's lazy parenting. Devices are taken everywhere and it's sad to see. Devices are at dinner tables, children holding them in pushchairs, in shopping trollies. Children need to connect with people and nature and real life. For the record I have young children and I work and I used some nursery. When I went to the shops they would be involved. Even as babies, I would pass them things to hold and study, we read books at bedtime, they helped with housework (as fun not chores). I talked to them and sang on car journeys. I listened to their stories. They helped cook dinner and Bake cakes. If we went out for food we would colour or play hangman or eye spy. Small efforts and big rewards. As toddlers when they got up at 5am they would climb into bed with me and I would give them a device to watch things if I needed a bit more sleep. We were not without Devices but they were the back up when needed rather then the norm.

I have read Drs saying severe constipation issues are much more common in children than they used to be

@GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER

OTOH one thing I liked about Peppa Pig when Gdcs were fans, was that at least she doesn’t have an American accent!

No - just an unbelievably irritating Received Pronunciation one, like a porcine Verucca Salt.

That’s a good point. Several years ago now we were advised on starting school to include a change of underwear in pe bags because they expected some accidents. They were used (both by DS and by others because I was a reliable parent who after the first time told the teacher I absolutely did not mind the occasional loss of primark pants).

But if you grow up in the UK with parents who speak British English and you have an American accent it's highly likely that you have spent too much time watching YT/TV etc.

How do you know all this info? And As you said;
my wee girl was still prone to accidents and I wouldn’t have called that potty trained but they said she was counted as such
How do you know the other 52 aren't the same?

It's fairly easy for some people to pick up accents.