hayleybaby said:
I am an ex early years teacher / manager. Over the last few years, the majority of children’s baseline assessments have been so low. A lot of children don’t know the basics of play. Have little to no routine at home and a high percentage have speech delays. If the BYG wants to do the best for her girls she should really put them into nursery where professionals can nurture and care for them properly.
As a retired teacher I can confirm it's been going on for much longer than the pandemic.
I taught for 25 yrs until I broke my back and it's been going on for quite a while now, especially since the plethora of TV channels, mobile phones, screen time. A lot of mums greet kids with their eyes plastered to the screen or on the phone to someone. Kids learn by watching and imitating. So they are given an 'electric nanny' as we called it from an early age eg TV, ipad, mobile and they have seen mum/dad on them so the imitate. My comments are what I have witnessed mostly teaching in very deprived inner city areas and are not written to accuse or offend, and, of course, I'm generalising. There are some brilliant parents out there. This is just my subjective view based on what I've seen.
When I was a kid in the 70s there were 3 TV channels and dad was in charge of what we watched, no TV in the morning at breakfast time. Kids TV was 3.30 to 5.40pm, no videos, no sky etc. We might have watched a limited amount of TV but mum/dad engaged with us to keep us occupied. We played games together, read, drew, painted, practised writing/doing sums. We played out as much as we could learnt how to make friends, teamwork, co-operation, success and coping with disappointment/loss and failure. We played shop/post office and learned to use coins this way. We played with dolls until 13 yrs old and learnt to be mini parents. Role play was important (I was always the teacher and made worksheets and taught my dolls) My brothers were builders, soldiers or policemen. We all had ambitions to be these role models when we were older. A lot of teens these days just want to be 'famous' when they're older, or just rich - no 'career' just rich. I've seen a change in this ambition too, I'd say 10 -20 yrs ago ambitions were to be rich footballers or singers. 30 yrs ago to be a doctor or astronaut or nurse. Obviously I'm generalising. Nowadays they see internet influencers making millions based on looks and beauty advice and it looks easy and glamorous.
In last 25 yrs TV channels went into the hundreds, tech came down in price so everyone has a mobile, dvd(not so much now), internet and as this decreased the actual playing out and learning through play. Kids go to bed with TVs on until they fall asleep whereas we fell asleep to mum's voice reading our favourite book. 8 yr olds are fascinated with make up and image and don't want to play with dolls or role play (half my career was teaching 8 yr olds).
I taught school nursery (age 3-4)for a while and some parents haven't even potty trained their kids. Some children come with very few social skills and head straight for the computer. Some have very poor fine motor skills as they're not used to using their hands to write, paint or draw (but can use a mouse and game control pad). They come to school tired as they've been allowed to stay up late until they've fallen asleep watching a video. Some won't interact with others or take part in group activities because they're not used to being told what to do or made to follow a routine. Learning at an early age is key to helping your child when they get to school age. Larose is already a July birthday so some children will be 10 months older than her when she starts school. Sitting her in front of the TV isn't what she needs or craves. Just watched a recent BYG video asking for examples of good baby TV programmes or videos she can make LaBored watch as 'she tried loads and she doesn't like them.' She wants her mummy..... not TV.
Just watching TV as I write this and a Ch4 programme was being advertised saying 1 in 7 children start school as morbidly obese. This rises to 40% obesity rates by the age of 10. This is also linked to a lot of what I mention already.
Again my opinion isn't there to offend and I hope our Scrunchie friends see it as just my opinion.