to think that the new Scottish adverts about the first 3 years of your childs life are the most important so talk to them are a waste of money?

[sweetkitty]

Apologies to non Scottish people but I think these adverts are being run by the Scottish Executive.

Basically if you are not aware they are freaky adverts with a young baby and a parent and music comes on and the baby starts dancing and so does the parent, along with the "first 3 years of your childs life are the most important so communicate with them"

There are also radio adverts talking about reading to your child and talking to them to help them improve their communication skills.

Oh and I was stopped in the street and asked if I thought talking to a child under 3 was a waste of time and did I read to my child?

Now I know they are trying but they are so condesending and my point is that if you HAVE to tell a parent to talk to their child should they be a parent in the first place. Surely all caring parents are doing this anyway and the ones who aren't are not going to be swayed by these adverts?

I just think they ar a pointless waste of money?

Just my musings?

I'm not keen on the dancing baby one because it reminds me of the Ally McBeal dancing baby which still gives me the creeps, but otherwise actually I do think they're a good thing. Yes, they seem like they're stating the bleeding obvious but given the state of the country many of the things that these public service ads say are clearly not obvious to many, many people.

I saw a great one on the bus when I was down in London recently. It was a cartoon teen saying something like "I promise not to plsy my music too loud" and a cartoon old lady saying "and I promise not to put my bag on the seats". I liked that it was saying that decent behaviour on public transport was everyone's business. But maybe it was a waste of time hey ho. Why do we do anything?

Actually the Dancing Baby one did make me switch off the tv and put the radio on to dance with ds. But he didn't want to. We played musical bumps instead.

i haven't seen the adverts but do think that a lot of people don't actually think to speak to their babies/children.
i bought my pram specifically so that i could turn the seat to face me and chat to my dcs when they were babies. It was a natural thing to do for us and my kids never shut the fuck up...
i never forget one of the ubermums when my dd1 was a baby saying to me 'she can't understand you you know?' in a taking the piss way (i was 21 and single and she was a 32yr old accountant married to a consultant eye surgeon!)

I find it a bit depressing, as DD just turned 3 and can't speak really (she is autistic) so it just reminds me that the most important years for progress are now over and this is where we are at.

But that's just me and a pretty unusual situation.

I think it's worth people feeling condescended to slightly if it helps to educate others and improve their kids education.

Please try not to feel that those years have gone by, Fanjo. My dd did not speak until Primary 1 despite lots of reading, speaking, making her chair at the dinner table the same height as the rest of us so she was never excluded from conversation etc.

Children do take in a lot more than we think plus they love the intimacy of being cuddled in and read to.

Years on and dd has many learning problems but her reading is very good. She is still reluctant to speak but will happily read out loud.

Perhaps the ads struck a raw nerve as you become used to being patronised when you have a child with sn.

Thanks.

I think it's because I always worry if she is how she is because I didn't read/speak to her enough, although it's hard to keep reading/speaking to someone who doesn't seem aware of your existence!!

The worst one had to be the advert encouraging people to eat healthily which had people using fish and bananas as phones! They were suggesting that you phone a number for advice about eating 5 a day. I remembe hearing that they only got about 20 calls in 9 months!!!!

I'm pretty torn on this one. The message of the adverts is obviously a worthwhile one, but some of them are pretty cringeworthy...and presumably hideous expensive while keeping lots of advertising lovies and Scottish government people in well paid employment.
Mybe it'll all stop soon with the swingeing (sp?) cuts in spending we've been told to expect

fanjo I treated all 3 of my kids the same spoke to them and read to them from when they were little babies my girls were early talkers in fact my eldest could have a conversation with you at 18 months but my son was really late at talking he didn't start talking until 3 and a half in fact he failed his 2 year assessment miserably he is ASD along with lots of other problems.I've heard the adverts and think there brill my SIL used to plop her kid in front of the TV all the time she had all the latest toys but she never interacted with her she is 12 now and still talks like a blooming 5 year old I gave her books when she was a toddler and her reaction was her dad can do that when he comes she never bothered to read to her.

Haven't seen the adverts but I think that they can only be a good thing.

Where I live on the West coast is one of the poorest areas in Scotland and is recognised by the EU as an area of deprivation (thus qualifying for grants from said Eu that the council squander to no effect.) We have some of the worst performing schools in the country, amongst the highest unemployment and such a bad NED/NEEt problem that we were one of 7 areas in the country to pilot the Scottish Government's new scheme to re-engage these kids. We also have shocking numbers of under-age and teenage pregnancies.

I know many children whose only exposure to books is in school. Whose homes are completely bereft of reading material, except ocassional tabloid papers. I know lots of kids who have taken home the weekly book from the nursery library only to take it back unread because the parents don't see the point in reading. The only older children I know who read are mine. All my children's friends openly admit to not reading at all at home because it is boring and they would rather spend time and money on video games. The main way of communicating with infants round here is shouting and swearing, in fact I recently heard my 15 year old neighbour tell her 10 month old daughter that she was a noisy c and would she "no just shut the f up!" This is the common currency of communication iin these parts, thereby helping to create a vicious circle of low achieving and poverty. Kids here eat chicken nuggets and tinned meatballs every day because parents can't afford proper food, but have sky tv and endless cartoons.

Anything that encourages parents to talk to/read to their kids around here can only be a good thing. It might help break the cycle of poverty and deprivation endemic in this area. BUT only if people pay any attention to it, which I doubt, as nobody pays any attention to any of the other social adverts except to make absolute mockery of them.

I don't know, I am starting to regret all the early interaction/reading etc. HE. WILL. NOT. SHUT. UP!

hey,judgeyjudgeymcjudgeyson.
that's an awful lot of conclusions you are jumping to.
i am sure you feel utterly validated and superior with your choice to home-ed and my my doesn't it show???

Just coming back to this after my OP, I agree that the message they are trying to get out is good but the way they have done it is so cringeworthy. The dancing baby is just plain creepy and the very oversimplified tone just puts people off.

I cannot believe people don't talk to their children that often, I am always babbling away to the DDs, probably too much. I try and limit the amount of TV they watch too.

I do know friends who have cbeebies on from the minute they get up to the minute the kids go to bed and a 4yo who has a TV in her bedroom and goes to bed everynight watching DVDs and has done since before she was 2.

StressedHEMum - I know the exact area you are talking about, I think I was born where you luve now and grew up a few miles away so understand completely what you mean about the level of deprivation. My MIL was a teacher in that area for 40 years and could confirm that some children have never seen a book until they go to school.

I believe that about one in thirteen people (Tayside) leave school unable to read or write properly.
Perhaps there ought to be a way of helping with adult literacy in Scotland. There used to be an ad for this but I have not seen it for a long time. It would make sense to run it again back to back with 'dancing child' ad.

There are adult literacy courses. I saw the ads for this not that long ago.

does that mean I can give up doing anything for ds except the really urgent stuff like taking him to school now, having paid lots of attention for his first three years? Ooh, more time to be selfish relax!

edam, there are also adverts about speaking to your child and to your teen. I think they are very good.

I too am a mother of a child with speech delay and potential ASD. I have read him stories since he was 3 months old and have a house full of books. I speak to him constantly. Yet adverts like this make people like me and Fanjo feel guilty.

But perhaps you are right. Perhaps we are not the target audience.

waitingforgodot I think its more the lazy oiks who think that it's everyone else's responsibility to raise and educate their children my boy who is now 15 loves books just can't read them but he has loads of talking books which he listens to at night.

Haven't seen the tv one but have heard the radio ones and I think YABU

Talking about excellent public health advets from Scotland - does anyone remember the blue sticks anti-smoking one?

ha ha just went on amazon and the scottish government have an add for "smarter scotland" playtalkread

I hope that the judgey comment was not aimed at me because I am not judging nor do I fell superior about my "choice" to HE. It wasn't a choice because, it was forced upon us by the local council refusing to fund ANY SUPPORT AT ALL for my Asperger's children. In fact my DS1 went right through school, leaving after 6th year as the school's highest achieving pupil, so I am not anti school in any way nor am I smug in my HE, I would prefer my kids to be in school like everyone else.

I am not making assumptions, I have lived here all my life, except when I was at uni, and this is my experience of this area. We DO have some of the worst performing schools in Scotland, we DO have some of the highest levels of poverty, unemployment, underage pregnancy, drink/drug related crime in Scotland, we also have sme of the highest levels of illiteracy. NOT assunptions, statistical facts. The fact is that many children here HAVE never seen a book until they start education and who from a very young age pepper their speech with profanities because that is what they are used to hearing. My own children ARE the only ones amongst their friends who read regularly and I have been asked more times than I can count why we have so many books and do I actually force people to read them.

If the judgey comment was aimed at me, then I think that it is not me who is judging, but you. I am speaking from experience, you are not. You are making assumptions based on little to no personal knowledge of the situation here. I speak from over 40 years experience of living in this community.

SweetKitty, I have a few friends involved in both primary and secondary education here just now, as either teachers or classroom assistants, and they will back up what your MIL has told you. Many kids come to school or nursery here with no exposure to books/conversation and teachers struggle against parent apathy all the time, even in preschool. It's all a bit like fighting a losing battle in many cases. That's why I think that the adverts and things are a bit of a waste of money because the target audience doesn't really pay much attention to them.

I loved the blue sticks advert and my OH still gets annoyed when we refer to him sneaking out to buy more of them.

I have worked in Social Work and education in Scotland for the last 14 years and I think most people have no idea just how bad things are in some families. A TV ad campaign is going to be the most effective to reach the kinds of families that need to be told the most basic things about parenting - yes, you could hand out books (actually, you get those too) but if they don't get read, what's the point?

At least the Scottish Exec is not ignoring the problem.