Growing number of children 'don't know their own name' when starting school

[mrz]

www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/8668117/Growing-number-of-children-dont-know-their-own-name-when-starting-school.html

Yes, big difference between not knowing your official name and not being aware you have any name.

I think so, Rita. And the article rather blurs that difference. They talk about 'a number of cases of children arriving for their first day at school who did not know their name or that they even had a name'. IMO, those could be two very different kinds of case, and it's not acknowledged anywhere in the article.

Sorry, I've got a redundant 'don't' in my post to you mrz. Ignore it in the last line.

I would be very happy for child arriving in school called Peter Samuel and him telling me his name is Sam and after checking with mum I would refer to him as Sam all the time he is in my class. If a child arrived in my class and told me his/her name was "sexy baby" I'm afraid I would struggle but would check with mum what name to use. I have no objection to parents calling children by any name just as long as they use a name and not "oi"

I wonder if some of it is miscommunication between teacher and child? If they are coming from very different cultural/social backgrounds and there is a lack of shared experience there - the child may well think they are called something, the teacher may well think the child doesn't know it's name.

swallowedAfly IME children are rarely removed even in cases of serious negect

Rita there are children arriving in nurseries who grunt, it isn't miscommunication, it's not having the ability to communicate.

and no they are not SEN.

Of course it doesn't make you a bad parent your daughter knew her name.

and even if she didn't it doesn't mean you are a bad parent there can be lots of reasons.

swallowAfly you seem to be the one hung up on the "working class" idea but I would say from experience II've only taught two children who were elective mute when they first started school but a number who lacked the basic vocabulary to communicate with anyone. I've had parents ask me how I know what their child is saying because they can't understand what their own child said!

Lulu is an acceptable short form for Louise, I've heard a lot of parents using it. And some parents or children deliberately want to use the middle name, eg the first name might be a very common one in their family/street/circle of friends. I believe the article referred to children who didn't even know their own name when it was called out or when they were spoken to. Eg "Joe Bloggs, here's your biscuit" (no response) ...."Er, Joe, would you like a biscuit?" (said a bit louder)....(no response......penny drops - Joe doesn't realise that she means HIM). Of course loads of kids could logically refuse to say their name ("my mummy says I must not speak to strangers")

Ooh, re: men/boys being called "boy" rather than their name or a shortened version of their name....I actually have a relative who was called "boy" 90% of the time by his family!!! In this instance (really weird, but you can see why), it was actually because they were so chuffed to have a boy (yes, he was youngest and a bit spoiled) - his poor sis, who did get called by her real name all the time. His sister was the only one who used his real name significantly more than anyone else; even relatives were encouraged to call him "boy"!! When he went to uni he decided to give himself an extra first name that he insisted his friends and his relatives called him by from then on, even though his documents had his real name. The family don't call him boy any more.

Re: the Cissy story, that seems to be a common derivation of the name...I know of someone who was called that because her brother couldn't say "sister", and soon everyone used it as a nickname too. She liked it so much she used it thereafter, and left her conventional (or so she thought) first and middle names just for official documents.