Increasing trend in children who are not ready for school

Today’s news story, based on the Kindred Squared survey that that more than a quarter of children are starting school unable to eat and drink independently, some are not fully toilet trained with others struggling with basic language skills is not new.  I have been writing about this trend for more than twenty-five years. 

However, the incidence of children with under-developed language skills (listening and repeating back; following simple instructions) is not confined to children, it is also evident in almost every aspect of adult life in the technological world. As adults we are the mirrors in which are children's reflections are formed.

Staff who cannot remember a simple order in cafe’s; students who cannot process new information unless it has been presented in video form; a need to photograph instructions and capture events on camera.  Technology is changing the ways in which we all process, record and recall information. 

The influence of this trend on children is twofold:

1.      Adults whose own attention is distracted and who do not spend sufficient time engaged with their children in active conversation and play.

2.    Children’s exposure to e- entertainment, which does not listen or reflect back on what a child has to say.  Video games are pre-programmed and act as the perfect child-minder, inducing prolonged states of passivity.

Young children learn by doing:  By exploring beyond their current comfort zone. Trial and error learning is a crucial element of learning new skills – when an infant learns how to do something for the first time it not only gains a new step towards independence - it also builds neural circuits involved in problem solving.

Infants (the word infant means “one without speech”) learn to speak by listening, being given time to respond, reflecting back and trying again.  Researchers at the University of Edinburgh observed mother-infant conversations and discovered that early dialogue contains all the elements of a musical composition: melody, answering phrase and rhythm but this only occurred if the mother paused after using a short phrase and allowed the infant time to process the sounds. When the baby was given time, the mother was rewarded with a perfect musical answering phrase and this conversation could continue for some time.  When another adult entered the room and spoke to the baby without allowing time for response, the baby “gave up” and left the conversation.  The message from this research is that children need conversation with a sympathetic listener in real time and space to develop language skills.

It is not surprising that children are unable to hold a book correctly or attempt to swipe or scroll rather than turn a page.  Use of devices in the home means that they learn the world revolves around the touch of a button or the swipe of finger.  Physical handling of a book is different.  Initially it involves the time of an adult, preferably reading to the child and talking about the pictures and the story.  From this, young children learn that beyond the pictures is a deeper and more interesting story hidden within the secret code of symbols on the page.  These symbols have the potential to reveal layers of information and imagination far more powerful than a momentary image.  A book also enables the reader to go back, to revisit and therefore to remember.

The effect of social media on adolescents is just one aspect of the insidious influence that technology is having on all our lives, not only in what it does, but in what it stops us from doing and that this new artificially created way of life becomes the new normal.

Humans belong to the species of mammals for whom physical interaction and play are essential for the young to be accepted when they enter the adult world. Young children are no different from other mammals in this respect.