According to a new study conducted by the Government, over 300,000 toddlers have never been read a nursery rhyme by their parents.
For children under five in England, eight percent never learnt songs or nursery rhymes; twelve percent were never taught numbers, and fourteen percent (574,928 children) have never learnt the alphabet or how to recognise words. The poll was carried out on 2,685 parents and conducted by the Department for Education (DfE).
Later this year, ministers will launch a new campaign for parents called “Chat, Play, Read”, encouraging them to do more educational play with children.
Damian Hinds, the Education Secretary, said that children being unable to speak in sentences when they go to primary school, is a “persistent scandal” and parents not teaching their children is the “last taboo” in education.
Children are expected to understand and talk about the events that have happened or are going to happen, but more than a quarter of four- and five-year-olds don’t have the adequate skills.
Children with poor vocabulary at that age are more than twice as likely to be unemployed by the age of 34, another study revealed.
Amanda Spielman, the head of Ofsted, has previously spoken about the fact that more and more children are not ready for reception year as they are not able to communicate properly. She said that only some “lucky” children get a bedtime story read to them.
The Department for Education is also planning on training staff at Clarks shoe shops, so they can start conversations with children and help them with their language skills when they are being fitted for their school shoes.
The government are reaping what they have sown! Under Five practitioners have been told for years,that children need to play and more or less been told they are not to ‘teach’ – we are not considered able to do something as ‘clever’ as teach. Leave it to the experts! Well it’s time we did what we can for our children. We all have children, who can do more in the way of learning letters and numbers, even learning to read some words. Many of us are very capable, if only we are given the professional respect we deserve. I certainly know many childminders with years of experience and expertise, who could be as professional as any teacher.
And the government are doing it again! What are they thinking – training staff in Clarks shoe shops. We are all having a good laugh at this one. Please save your money and ask us about better ways to spend it!!
So the “lucky” children of parents who are well off enough to afford shoes from Clarks, and probably don’t need vocabulary lessons because they have parents who have time to talk to them are to be further helped by shoe shop staff. While the majority of children whose parents work all hours at minimum wage and shop at Shoe Zone or other general footwear stores will lose out once again! Talk about a two tier system!Does Damien Hinds have any idea how obnoxious that sounds?