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

I've also had children who thought they were called various pet names unrelated to their real name not shortened forms. If I get a William or Thomas or Katherine or Samantha I usually ask mum if they want me to use a shortened form but never considered the child would only answer to "bunny"

this can't be true, surely..

No the family wasn't abusive but he had 3 sisters and he was "the boy".

I doubt it is a 'huge wave' of children, but I didn't read the article as suggesting that. It said a million children have problems communicating, and not all of those problems are due to poor parenting. Clearly there're developmental issues as well.

But poor parenting is a real and significant issue. I am afraid there are children left strapped in a buggy for most of the day who are not talked to. And it will be quite obvious when they start school.

Let's be careful with this article.

First of all, no figures are quoted on the scale of the problem and the 'evidence' that this problem is increasing, is based on the anecdotal account of a few headteachers in Hull and London.

"We do have a problem. Anecdotally, it?s getting worse from what head teachers say.?

This then gets translated into the headline:

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

Also:

"The past five years have seen a 58 per cent rise in the number of young children in school identified with the problem."

But it also says there is an awareness campaign and the government is spending a lot of money on the issue, so clearly, there will be an impact from better diagnosis of the problem.

Of course communication is important but this article is along the usual line of 'let's blame TV and bad parents for everything that goes wrong with our children'. I know those articles sell more papers than serious ones based on actual research, but that doesn't make them true.

slightly off topic....I was admiring the drawing of a year 1 boy, one day, as it had a lot of detail for one so young. I said "do you do a lot of drawing at home, because that is really lovely?" and he replied "No,I haven't got any pens or pencils or paper at home" I was a bit surprised "None at all?" "No, Mum says she can't afford them".
This was a child who always had up-to-the-minute trainers, Ben10 toys,clothes ,lunchbox, a trampoline in his back garden,bike,roller skates, skateboard,scooter etc....but from a dysfunctional family on benefits. And they wondered why he wasn't making progress with his reading and writing.

also slightly off topic
I remember the dinner supervisor coming to tell me about Peter in my class ... Sorry I don't have a Peter ... the little boy wasn't sure what his name was so he had told them it was Peter (Parker aka Spiderman)

I am in shock! This means we can't blame sponging pension guzzlersteachers. So this time it must be mothers. Nothing we could say about cutting surestart and teaching assistants which could help these kids?

My childrens nursery school (in NI), give a treat out every Friday (a pencil, pencil top, small pack of sweets etc) the treat is put on a table and a piece of paper with the childs name is put on top, they then bring the children up in small groups and get them to pick the treat with their name on it. Work really well.

This is so sad. Custardo why would only parents in receipt of certain benefit

be in need of parenting classes? .Surely poor parenting isn't confined to

those on benefits?.

wigglesrock it isn't their written name that they don't know

The advent of the media, particularly the television, has had a pretty poor impact on communication,"

TV has been around for 60+ yrs, no? .

Once upon a time, families would spend a lot of time talking. Nowadays, of course, they?ve got DVDs, the internet, TV, and so this formal communication process of talk and listening has got worse.

Actually, 20+ yrs ago the kids were all booted out the door at the earliest acceptable age to play in the streets. If the kid wasn't on a latchkey, then Mum spent all day cleaning & managing house & Dad was down at the pub when he wasn't at work, the idea that everybody sat around Walton Family style... actually, the Waltons would have been working hard on the farm all day (& half the night), too. Older siblings threatened with whippings if they didn't look after littler ones; older ones threatening the littler ones to keep quiet & not embarrass Big Sister; the idea that parents ignoring their offspring is a NEW thing? HA!!

I have speech delayed preschoolers who still constantly talked about themselves by name, I don't see speech delay & not knowing own name as likely to be that related.

Not read the whole thread, so apologies if I repeat what others have said.

I do think that there may well be v small numbers of children in which this may be the case and I agree that social deprivation is likely to be a determining factor in this, however much people like to think it isn't.

BUT the article is ONLY commenting on anecdotes and their are absolutely no hard facts or figures, so to be making it out as a huge problem seems, to me, to be overstepping the mark widely and creating a gasp shock horror mountain out of the molehill of the comments of a couple of headteachers only.

There not their - a week into the holiday and I can no longer spell :)

I can't quite believe it. How is it possible, even if you tried, to get a child to five years and not say his/her name? I mean, even if you were abusive you'd be screaming at them to come and sweep the chimney and would have to use their name surely? You don't actually teach a child his name, the child just learns it by hearing it and then realising that it's his name.

"TV has been around for 60+ yrs, no?"
TV has been around for some time but not everyone had a TV ... certainly when I was a child it wasn't common in most homes. In addition TV wasn't the round the clock entertainment it has become until very recently unless you wanted to watch the test card.

One of my aunts is a TA in a state primary school in Tunbridge Wells (ie hardly an area of severe deprivation). She only provides language support to YR and Y1 - occasionally to children whose mother-tongue is not English, but mostly to children whose parents never talk to them and who can barely speak when they start school.

I teach in a deprived area (35% FSM, social housing, welfare dependent etc, etc). In my school, I have come across only a few children who didn't know their first names and most of those were children who had names that had been shortened (Tommy was Thomas, Betsy was Elizabeth and Maddie was Madeline although she thought herself as Madison!) None of these children were from 'deprived' families and accept they are sometimes called a different name either verbally, on the register or on the front of books etc, etc. Only Tommy refuses to accept his real name is Thomas. That doesn't mean to say, that children starting reception who do not know their first name, does not exist. Likelihood is that these groups are children are growing in number.

The biggest problem is communication skills - or lack of it! In our reception intake 'last year', we had 20 out of 48 children who were identified as having S&L problems. The sad fact was that ALL children were from deprived, welfare dependent families and were one of many (in some cases sinlge mums as young as 25 with 7 children-by several different fathers - and unable to cope!). I'm not saying that ALL deprived families have children with these problems but certainly it is, in my area, the largest group.

We could debate forever the reasons why this may be the case, but from what I have seen, it is down to lack of aspirations from the parents in many instances. Again, not all cases are like this. I know of a few families who have several children and only one has S&L problems. In more cases than not, there are also other SEN factors to consider - deafness, prematurity (it happens!), simple S&L that is profound but common place in regards to the type, autism etc, etc.

My own 4-year-old cousin has been diagnosed with S&L problems aged 3 but considering he has also been diagnosed with autism (like one of his older brothers) it is no surprise.

I know that ministers are talking of making schools 'responsible' for sorting this 'crisis' out but I totally disagree. For one, the government NEVER give 100% support or financial help and when they do, it's for a short period of time. In my view this is not a short term problem. It has been getting progressively worse for the past ten years and in cases where 'lack of parenting is to blame', it will just spiral out of control as more off-spring come through the system.

The support, guidance and RESPONSIBILITY should be on the family - not the school. The ministers have already claimed that this is a 'parenting' issue so by putting responsibility on schools, is not tackling the root cause. Don't get me wrong, not EVERY S&L problem is caused by bad parenting, but surely cause should be established first as in ANY problem and tackled at the source. On a last note, Children Centres are great but in my area, it does not reach out to those who need it the most and therefore not achieving it's full potential. If it was, children's abilities, development and aspirations would have improved over the past 5 years but it has not.

Never met a child who doesn't know their own name. I know one who didn't like her own name, and so was allowed to 'choose' her a different one when entering Reception. She chose 'Britney'.

The teacher had to change the tray label, cloakroom label, everything. And by the time she got to Y2 with me, she wanted to change it back again!

Have met far too many children who don't know how to ask to go to the toilet - 'I need a piss' is very popular on entry to Reception

I would absolutely believe this. I went yesterday to the doctor's office with DS for a checkup and we sat in the waiting room full of parents busy on their phones while their small children sat or rolled around on the floor or shredded magazines -- receiving no verbal input from the parents at all. When the names were called, the children got a 'come on' from the parents and were shunted to the examining rooms. Most of the parents paid absolutely no attention to their children during the long stretch while they were waiting.

I knew families like this growing up in Ireland a long time before mobile phones were invented, who only interacted with their children for the bare essentials of communication, brusque directions and reprimands. Children suffered emotionally and academically, not surprisingly. I remember a news item from way back in Dublin where two small boys were found abandoned in a buggy outside a shop. The older one was able to say their names were Anto and Deco (probably Anthony and Declan) but had no idea about the details of their lives or themselves other than that.

In the US, I knew a family with triplets who spoke Spanish as their first language as they had a Mexican nanny whose English wasn't great. The parents were surprised when they realised what was happening (when the girls were 3).

to say I had to phone my mother when DD1 was a few weeks old to get the words of many nursery rhymes as I had completely forgotten them..

Feenie totally inappropriate of me, but " I need a piss" in reception made me . God i'm twisted.

"Not clear if they are talking about children not responding to their names, or not being able to answer the question "what is your name?"."

Good point. Ds2 (6 in September) who has severe autism, with severe learning difficulties, will respond to his name with no trouble. But if you asked him what his name was, you'd get no response.

Mathanxiety - I can believe your Spanish story. I know a boy with fluent English-speaking parents who speaks as though English is his second (and not that great) language because he speaks German at school and his parents never really speak to him. His English accent, if anything, sounds American - which is not where his parents are from - as that is what he hears on his daily DVD diet.

I hope his German is better, but as I don't speak it myself and he is not reading or writing at all (age seven), and at an alternative school which does not push it, etc, it is hard to know. It certainly won't be at mother tongue level, I wouldn't think, as neither of his parents speak it and they also pull him out of school a lot for long glamorous trips around the world. ("We think you learn so much from experiencing the world" - shame that world is a series of similar hotels with the same DVDs showing.....) So yes, he has ridden elephants in Laos but he can't swim or ride a bike - the stuff that takes time and effort.

MrsDaff -- the triplets I knew used to go on fabulous holidays but the parents took the nanny along...

if a dc is used to being called Princess, Bunny or something like that, the dc is still being spoken to.

I don't actually find it a huge deal that a dc wouldn't know her real name is Francis and not Bunny. It is a wee bit odd and I have never come across it but not really catastrophic in a 4 year old IMO who has never been to nursery