Children forgetting how to use knife and fork

Mrsn

Barny1979 said:

Even more worrying in the article was those children who had regressed back to nappies!

I wish I could say this wasn’t true... sadly the amount of children in normal times who start school not being properly toilet trained is quiet astounding.

Parents will sometimes say oh yes of course they are when it’s quiet clear they aren’t.

strawb_shortcake

I've not known of a child starting school still in nappies but it wouldn't surprise me.
When my eldest two were in preschool, their key worker mentioned that my children knew that a book told a story, this seemed to be a completely odd notion as I couldn't work out what else a book was supposed to. She went on to say that some children simply think it's a picture book with no other meaning which I found very sad. 
But it did explain why when we tried to buy them some early reader books there weren't any words in it.  When my Son did join reception they start with these wordless books so children can start by creating a story to match the pictures in the book.
I did go in to read with reception, and it was always the parents that shouted the loudest about how well their children could read that struggled the most.

Pollycat

From what I saw in various eating places before lockdown, a lot of kids couldn't use cutlery anyway.
It's a cop-oyt to blame it on covid.

Aranyani

MovingForwards said:

I was having a good chat with my internet repair guy a few weeks ago, at a guess he was 10 years younger than me; I'm fast approaching mid-40's.

One of the very long topics we discussed was the 'youth of today' and how we we taught to read / write before even going to primary school. He was a former teacher and couldn't understand how the kids were being sent off to school without the basics of being able to read, write, get dressed, do their own shoes and some didn't even know how to feed themselves.

I wish I could sit here and say I'm surprised, sadly I'm not.

Life begins at home, the educational system builds on that foundation (teaching / learning) and then the young adults keep it up throughout the rest of their life. It's not going to happen in an unstable home.

There's absolutely no need to teach children to read or write before school age.  They start at 4! 

Aranyani

mrschaucer said:

Talk about de-skilling and de-professionalising teachers - are they REALLY supposed to "do" potty training and knife and fork wielding now, as well as everything else?  Children only "regress" back to wearing nappies if the parents are so hopeless that they would rather physically provide nappies for their 5 year olds rather than interact with them.  It's shocking. 

I think reception teachers have always had to do a bit of this.  Kids develop at different paces and there's a big difference between an August born child who starts school days after they turn 4 and a September baby who starts when they are days away from turning 5.  

Savvy_Sue

Spendless said:

I can answer you about the reading/writing just from having a 20yo and a 17yo. We were told NOT to do it by the school! They said this was because the method you teach at home may not be the same used at the school. When they taught the alphabet/sounds even changed between my 2 with a 3 year gap!

Aranyani said:

There's absolutely no need to teach children to read or write before school age.  They start at 4! 

I'm not sure how you stop some of them ... DS2 taught himself to read from the cereal packets over the breakfast table: I was too mired in PND to really notice, but he wanted things spelled out to him. Consequently he started school and was off! 

Sometimes schools tell you NOT to do things because it makes things easier for them. I was fortunate that the boys were always adequately 'stretched' in the areas they excelled, whereas a sibling had to move their child to private school because the state one didn't want to differentiate enough and said they shouldn't be allowed or encouraged to do any extra maths in their own time. Sibling was a Maths teacher, didn't push their child but the child wanted to do it! 

Silvertabby

Aranyani said:

mrschaucer said:

Talk about de-skilling and de-professionalising teachers - are they REALLY supposed to "do" potty training and knife and fork wielding now, as well as everything else?  Children only "regress" back to wearing nappies if the parents are so hopeless that they would rather physically provide nappies for their 5 year olds rather than interact with them.  It's shocking. 

I think reception teachers have always had to do a bit of this.  Kids develop at different paces and there's a big difference between an August born child who starts school days after they turn 4 and a September baby who starts when they are days away from turning 5.  

A primary school teacher friend tells me that 25% of her class are in nappies.  Before lock down, it was more like 10% so, yes, some children have regressed.  

Aranyani

Silvertabby said:

Aranyani said:

mrschaucer said:

Talk about de-skilling and de-professionalising teachers - are they REALLY supposed to "do" potty training and knife and fork wielding now, as well as everything else?  Children only "regress" back to wearing nappies if the parents are so hopeless that they would rather physically provide nappies for their 5 year olds rather than interact with them.  It's shocking. 

I think reception teachers have always had to do a bit of this.  Kids develop at different paces and there's a big difference between an August born child who starts school days after they turn 4 and a September baby who starts when they are days away from turning 5.  

A primary school teacher friend tells me that 25% of her class are in nappies.  Before lock down, it was more like 10% so, yes, some children have regressed.  

I'm sure some have.  Not all parents are very good, so its great that teachers are there to help those children. 

Ibizafan

I was four in 1957, and it was common then to teach children to read before they went to school, and  resulted in my being a prolific reader ever since. I should be surprised that some children are still in nappies when they start school, but depressingly, nothing surprises me any more. Back in the 50s, toilet training took place much earlier, perhaps because there were no disposable nappies, and very few washing machines, so there was a much bigger incentive to get it done.

onomatopoeia99

Aranyani said:

MovingForwards said:

I was having a good chat with my internet repair guy a few weeks ago, at a guess he was 10 years younger than me; I'm fast approaching mid-40's.

One of the very long topics we discussed was the 'youth of today' and how we we taught to read / write before even going to primary school. He was a former teacher and couldn't understand how the kids were being sent off to school without the basics of being able to read, write, get dressed, do their own shoes and some didn't even know how to feed themselves.

I wish I could sit here and say I'm surprised, sadly I'm not.

Life begins at home, the educational system builds on that foundation (teaching / learning) and then the young adults keep it up throughout the rest of their life. It's not going to happen in an unstable home.

There's absolutely no need to teach children to read or write before school age.  They start at 4! 

I wanted to learn, I made my parents tell me what the letters were.  When they started teaching us letters in the year after reception, I already knew them all and my reading age was three years ahead.

All through infants and primary I was as bored as anything and a disruptive influence in class as I wasn't being taught, I was being held back to the average pace.  Can you understand how frustrating that is?  Grammar school was like a release from prison and rescued my education, and saved me from going off the rails.