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A pioneering system to measure a mother's love for her baby
has been devised by scientists in an attempt to identify children
most at risk from developing health and behavioural problems
in later life. The 10-minute psychological test is intended
by researchers to help health and social workers recognise
women who are struggling to bond with their offspring.
It has been developed by the family and personal relationships
laboratory at Heriot-Watt University, in conjunction with
the Scottish Executive's Centre for Integrated Healthcare
Research, for new mothers with children under the age of six
months. Evidence from a number of surveys carried out in the
US and elsewhere has indicated that youngsters deprived of
a loving, trusting relationship in their early years are more
likely to develop antisocial behaviour as they grow up.
(Extracted from an article by Paul Kelbie,
The Independent, 29.09.06)
The Welsh Assembly is developing a communication strategy
to raise awareness of the Foundation Phase (FP) prior to its
roll-out in 2008, amid concerns that its implementation will
'flounder'.
Academics from the University of London's Institute of Education
and the University of Wales Institute found, in their final
evaluation of the play-based FP pilots, that stakeholders
reported that they received 'no information and communication
at all'. Others complained that 'too little was often provided
too late' and that the channels of communication were often
'unclear and arbitrary'.
The evaluation report recommends that structural change is
needed to ensure that local authority staff are better equipped
to support FP settings and says that without this 'implementation
will flounder'. Welsh education minister Jane Davidson told
delegates at the launch of the action plan at the 'Building
the Foundation Phase' conference in Cardiff on Monday that
the Assembly is developing a national marketing plan to support
local and national staff recruitment and retention programmes.
She said she will also be looking at ways to explain to parents,
carers, governors and the public what the FP is about and
what changes it will bring.
The evaluation revealed other 'key challenges' that need
to be addressed, based on the 41 schools and early years settings
that took part in pilots from September 2004 to October 2006.
The final evaluation report, Monitoring
and evaluation of the effective implementation of the Foundation
Project across Wales, and the action plan can be downloaded
at www.wales.gov.uk
(Extracted from Nursery World, 07.12.06)
An innovative project aimed at re-designing the Children's
Speech and Language Service to ensure efficient and clinically
effective intervention and support, has won national praise.
The project, which has redesigned the way the service is delivered,
and also included a multi-professional preventive project,
It's good to talk with babies and
children.in Plymouth, beat stiff competition to win
the 'Clinical Engagement' category at the NHS Alliance Acorn
Awards on 23 and 24 November.
This award followed an earlier showcase presentation of the,
It's good to talk. project
at the National Literacy Trust Working
Together to Get Talking conference in October, where
it was held up as one of the top seven examples of best practice
in the UK. Dr Gaye Powell, Head of Speech & Language Services
at Plymouth Teaching Primary Care Trust, explained: "The Children's
Speech & Language Service has for some time struggled with
high numbers of referrals each year, long waiting times, difficulty
with recruiting and retaining skilled therapists. We were
also aware of the high number of children (over 50%) starting
school with poor communication skills across the city, which
could be reduced if parents and carers adopted good patterns
of early communication.
"We therefore wanted to work on prevention, as well as ensuring
clinical time was being used as effectively as possible to
benefit children and families. Whilst acknowledging there
is still a backlog of children waiting to be seen as a result
of the high demand - over 100 referrals per month, we know
that more focused intervention has improved the effectiveness
and will continue to do so.
"The It's good to talk .
project included speech and language therapists, educational
psychologists, early years workers, Sure Start staff, health
visitors, child minders, library workers, training co-ordinators,
midwives, parent partnership and children's centres all working
together to improve the early interaction and communication
skills of parents and children aged 0-3 years across Plymouth.
We identified examples of good practice that we could roll
out across the city, and all agreed that face-to-face talking
was the single message we should use to promote early interaction
and communication. Health visitors in particular, have played
a key role in delivering this message using 'Talking Tips'
to support the advice they provide at all new born hearing
assessments.
"We've also seen significant benefits for children, families
and staff through the redesign of our service. Over 800 children
and their parents have used our new style service since April.
We have piloted two successful twilight advice sessions for
parents of children who stammer, and have had some very positive
feedback from a secondary school age pilot which supports
teaching assistants to give the intensive support to children
who need it."
(Plymouth tPCT, 28.11.06)
Click here
to find out more about It's good
to talk with babies and children.in Plymouth
The importance of having speech and language professionals
working in children's centres was the focus of a debate in
the House of Lords last week. The Liberal Democrats' Baroness
Walmsley asked schools minister Lord Adonis how many speech
and language professionals were in place in children's centres
and how many have advanced plans to have them.
Lord Adonis said there was 'no breakdown of the figures by
location', but with plans to increase the number of children's
centres to 2,500 in 2008 and to 3,500 by 2010, he said: "we
would expect to see steadily more speech and language therapists
employed therein." He added: "It is the responsibility of
local children's trusts, which bring together the local authority,
the education service and the local NHS, to plan that provision
locality by locality."
But Liz Attenborough, manager of Talk To Your Baby, the National
Literacy Trust's early language initiative, which is calling
for greater investment in speech and language therapy services
for the early years, said: "It needs more than hoping that
children's centres will have the staff in place. It's an essential
preventative measure. "In too many places there are long waiting
lists for therapy, as health budget cuts are not in step with
educational needs. This means that too many vulnerable children
are not getting the help they need at the start of their educational
career."
The Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists (RCSLT)
said that local NHS cutbacks are threatening vital speech
and language therapy services. Jane Mackenzie, policy officer
for England, said: "Primary care trusts and strategic health
authorities are seeking short-term financial savings at the
expense of delivering the service children and adults desperately
need."
The RCSLT said that the Government predicts that it will
be more than ten years until there are enough speech and language
therapists to meet the needs of local communities. But research
undertaken by the RCSLT in July found that funding cuts at
local level mean that eight out of ten newly-trained therapists
cannot find jobs.
(By Nicole Weinstein, Nursery World, 09.11.06)
An eminent group of child-care experts raises serious concerns
today about the long-term effects of putting very young children
into inadequate day nurseries. In a letter to The Daily Telegraph,
they call for an "urgent national debate" on whether children
under three should be cared for by anyone other than trusted
and familiar figures in their lives.
The group, including the psychologist and author Steve Biddulph,
Sir Richard Bowlby, the president of the Centre for Child
Mental Health in London, and Prof Allan Schore, the renowned
American child psychologist, demand clearer vision on what
babies and very young children need to develop emotionally.
"Consistent, continuous care by a trusted figure is the key
to providing a secure and nurturing environment for very young
children," the letter says.
"Research suggests that its absence can lead to behavioural
difficulties." With the Government's Sure Start scheme encouraging
more day-care nurseries, more parents may be placing children
"in circumstances that may not be appropriate to their emotional
needs". That risks "storing up behavioural difficulties in
a significant proportion of the young children who spend extended
periods of time" separated from their mothers and in inappropriate
care. The effects would be felt for years.
.This morning's letter was spawned by a 2,600-word paper
written by Sir Richard, and circulated to 30 of the world's
leading experts and approved by most of them. Sir Richard
laid out all available evidence about the best way to care
for children, particularly in the crucial period between birth
and the age of 30 months. He concluded: "In a society which
encourages both parents to work outside the home while their
children are under three, it is 'attachment-focused' child-care
arrangements that have a crucial role to play in facilitating
healthy emotional development."
In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, Sir Richard said:
"I am not saying that all group day-care is bad any more than
I am saying that all mothers are perfect. But it is far more
difficult for a day-care nursery to provide an environment
in which a child will develop normal emotions than it is for
a mother, or in her absence, a father, grandparent or child-minder.
Rather than funding day-care nurseries through Sure Start,
the Government should make it easier for parents to use their
child-care allowances to pay a grandmother or other relative
to look after their children, or to use it themselves as 'pay'
to look after the child themselves."
(Extracted from an article by Ben Fenton,
the Daily Telegraph, 21.10.06)
The pace of modern life means parents are busier now than
they have ever been. But they are actually spending more time
with their children than parents did 30 years ago, according
to a report by a consumer think-tank. This new breed of 'super
parents' spend an average of nearly 100 minutes a day on childcare,
rising to over 200 minutes when they care for the under-threes.
This far exceeds the 25 minutes a day those in the 1970s spent
looking after their children.
Today's parents often juggle childcare with busy work commitments
and are more likely to sacrifice spending time with their
partners than their offspring. This is despite the commonly
held view that modern families do not have as much time to
devote to their children as in previous generations. The explanation,
researchers believe, is that women in the 1970s who stayed
at home were often occupied by housework rather than quality
time with their youngsters. Modern parents are also less likely
to allow their children to play in the street and further
afield because of safety fears, which means they give youngsters
their undivided attention.
The Changing Face of Parenting report by the Future Foundation,
commissioned by Calpol, was based on a survey of 795 parents
and non-parents in April. It found that women still shoulder
most childcare responsibilities, with the majority of time
spent outside any paid employment devoted to youngsters. They
also lost the most sleep. The most popular form of childcare
was by the mother or father first, followed by day nurseries,
childminders and grandparents. Despite increasing numbers
of females in the workforce, only about a fifth of those surveyed,
of both sexes, believed that the family would be happier if
the woman worked.
But Hugh McKinney, of the National Family Campaign, cast
doubt on the results. He said: "It's not possible or sensible
to draw accurate comparisons between the 1970s and now. The
rise in daytime children's television will mean for many parents
that any such extra time with their youngsters is spent in
front of the television, rather than interacting with them."
(Sarah Harris, Education Correspondent,
Daily Mail, 04.10.06)
When eight-year-old Brandon Turvey first started at Ashmead
school he could barely string a sentence together and struggled
to understand basic requests from his teachers. Four years
later, he feels confident about speaking in class thanks to
a one-hour session each week with a speech and language therapist.
Unfortunately, younger pupils at the school in Aylesbury,
Buckinghamshire, may not get such specialist help - and nor
may thousands of others across England.
Schools in several local education authorities are reporting
that their local primary care trusts cannot fund more speech
therapists because of cash-flow difficulties. Vale of Aylesbury
primary care trust told Ashmead school last year that it could
not accommodate any new referrals because of a budget freeze
and lack of staff. Jane Loder, head teacher of Ashmead, said
she had four pupils - including Brandon - who were entitled
to speech and language therapy on account of their special
needs but that it did not seem to be available to other children.
She said: "We've got another 25 children in key stage 1 who
have problems and we want to refer them to a specialist to
see if they warrant a statement, but we can't. If children
cannot communicate and express themselves orally, then they
can't write or spell either. We feel we are failing our children
if we cannot get them the help they need."
.Jane MacKenzie, of the Royal College of Speech and Language
Therapists, said 78% of speech and language managers had their
budgets frozen or cut for this academic year. Of the 700 trainee
speech and language therapists who graduated this year, only
140 have found jobs.
(Extracted from an article by Jenny Legg,
TES, 20.10.06)
Liz Attenborough, Manager of Talk
To Your Baby at the National Literacy Trust.
Under 5: Why was the National Literacy
Trust set up and what is the organisation's role?
Liz Attenborough: The National
Literacy Trust (NLT) was set up as an independent charity
in 1993, dedicated to building a literate nation. We encompass
all ages, and consider the broadest picture, acknowledging
how home and social circumstances help lay the foundations
for successful learning, alongside education. We provide a
large support network to all aspects of literacy through our
extensive website, regular conferences and email newsletters.
We also put ideas into practice with practical initiatives
such as Reading the Game,
harnessing the power of football and footballers to encourage
reading.
What work are you doing in the early
years sector?
In 2003 we set up Talk To Your Baby
(TTYB) as the NLT's early language campaign, really in response
to concerns from head teachers about the poor communication
skills of young children on entry to primary school. A survey
we did in 2001 with the National Association of Head Teachers
showed that 75% of heads felt skills had significantly declined
in the previous five years. We don't think there is one single
reason why we have these problems now, but whatever the reason
for the problem it's clear that it needs tackling urgently.
TTYB isn't a programme as such, but exists to support early
years professionals who work with families and young children
by giving them the information they need. For example, we
have created downloadable 'Quick Tips' information sheets
on our website - eight topics covered both in English and
bilingually in nine languages - that anyone can print off
and photocopy. We also reach parents and carers through advocacy
work in the media, getting the topic raised and talked about
on local radio, through magazines, and in newspapers. We want
to change the culture so that everyone knows the importance
(and the pleasure) of communicating with babies and young
children.
The Talk To Your Baby campaign encourages
verbal communication with pre-school children. How does verbal
communication relate to developing literacy skills later on
in life?
Communication skills are the foundation of all learning, but
also social and emotional development too, so couldn't be
more important and fundamental as a starting block. You need
to know how words and sentences work before you can begin
to think about reading and writing. Over time the coos, babbles
and smiles of babies will move on to first words and sentences.
Interaction helps this natural process along. Sharing books
is an especially good way to encourage language development,
from the very youngest age. Storytelling introduces structure
and language patterns that help form the building blocks for
reading and writing skills. Young children can understand
far more than they can say, and need to learn about things
such as turn-taking as the basis for conversation.
What can early years practitioners
do to try to encourage families to communicate more with their
children?
The best way to encourage good communication is to model it
yourself, to show how important it is and how effective it
can be with young children. This means, in particular, learning
to listen to children, to give them the space to babble and
talk back from the very youngest age, making eye contact and
allowing them time to respond. It's hard not to rush young
children, but it's worth taking the time to give them the
time and space to develop, by playing simple games with them
and singing songs. Many parents don't realise that it is never
too early to start talking and listening, as babies are born
to be sociable but they need adult interaction to make that
happen. Parents need to know that a language-rich home helps
a child to develop in many ways. You should try not to ask
too many questions. Instead, talk to them about their favourite
toy and let them take the lead. Most brain development occurs
from birth to age two, so babies and toddlers need stimulation
as much as they need nourishing food.
What is your organisation's view on
the findings of the Rose Review and use of synthetic phonics?
TTYB joined forces with other early years literacy and language
organisations, such as PEEP (Peers Early Education Partnership)
and Bookstart, to welcome the emphasis in the Review on speaking
and listening skills. We also welcomed the emphasis on the
importance of the home in sowing the foundations for reading.
The Review recognised that too much infighting on methods
of learning to read isn't helpful, and that we need to move
on to ensure that phonics can be made to be fun as part of
the total reading package. It can be very off-putting for
parents to hear the arguments. They just need to know that
in the home their role is to share books, give time for reading,
and encourage communication at all times to give their child
the best basis for learning to read at school.
What are the big issues that you will
be focusing on in the next year?
Early next year the NLT is launching the Family Reading Campaign,
a partnership campaign working to ensure that the importance
of encouraging reading in the home is integrated into the
planning and activity of all the key organisations concerned
with education, health and parenting. We would love to hear
from Under 5 readers who have interesting stories to share
about how they put family reading into action, as we want
to reach everyone with good ideas that they can pick up on
themselves. At TTYB we are stepping up our efforts to call
for the creation and production of more affordable, sociable
buggies that face the pusher, so that everyone can buy a buggy
that allows them maximum talking time when pushing their baby
or toddler around. It's such a waste to have young children
staring into space, alone, when they could spend that time
chatting to their pusher.
(Under 5, October 2006)
It is one of the most hotly debated topics in pregnancy and
early motherhood. Does breastfeeding really boost a baby's
intelligence? Now the largest scientific study yet carried
out has settled the issue. Breastfed babies are indeed smarter
- because their mothers are. Mothers who breastfeed tend to
be more intelligent, more highly educated and to provide more
stimulation at home. The higher IQ of their babies is therefore
mostly inherited, accounting for 75 per cent of the difference
between them and bottle-fed babies, the researchers found.
The rest of the difference is down to the environment in
which they are raised. Breastfed babies have mothers who are
older and better educated, and live in nicer homes where they
get more attention. When all these factors were taken into
account, breastfeeding made less than half a point's difference
in the intelligence scores - laying to rest a myth that has
held sway for almost 80 years.
Geoff Der, a statistician from the Medical Research Council's
social and public health sciences unit at the University of
Edinburgh, said: "This question has been debated ever since
a link between the two was first discovered in 1929. We found
73 articles which dealt with the link." He added: "Breastfed
children do tend to score higher on intelligence tests, but
they also tend to come from more advantaged backgrounds."
The study, published online by the British
Medical Journal today, is based on US data on the breastfeeding
history and IQs of 5,000 children and 3,000 mothers, which
was not available in the UK. Mr Der concluded: "There is no
reason why the same findings would not apply here."
The researchers also looked at families where one child was
breastfed and the other wasn't. This confirmed the findings
that breastfeeding made no difference to IQ. Mr Der said:
"Intelligence is determined by factors other than breastfeeding.
But breastfeeding has many benefits for both mother and child.
It is definitely the smart thing to do."In England and Wales,
77 per cent of babies are breastfed but more than a third
of mothers stop within the first six weeks. Nine out of 10
mothers in the professional and managerial class start breastfeeding,
compared with just over six out of 10 among manual workers.
Breastfeeding boosts the baby's immune system and protects
against infections, and reduces the risk of asthma and eczema
in childhood. It also reduces the risk of diabetes, high blood
pressure and obesity in adulthood. But Rosie Dodds, policy
researcher at the National Childbirth Trust, said evidence
from parts of the world where breastfeeding is more common
among poorer women cast doubt on the claim that it had no
link with intelligence.
In the Philippines, where bottle feeding is a sign of status
preferred by working mothers, a study published in the
Journal of Nutrition in 2005 found that babies who
were breastfed had higher intelligence, despite their more
deprived backgrounds. Ms Dodds said: "We cannot rule out an
influence of breastfeeding on intelligence especially in babies
born prematurely who may have missed out on what their biological
growth would have been. Breastfeeding is more likely to provide
the nutrients they need to grow and develop."
Another study of 14,600 babies, half of whom were breastfed,
conducted by University College hospital, London, and published
in the US journal Pediatrics this year, found there were more
developmental delays among the children who were bottle fed.
(Jeremy Laurance, Health Editor, The Independent,
04.10.06)
The winners of the Booktrust Early Years Awards 2006 include:
Baby Book Award
How Do You Feel? by Mandy Stanley (HarperCollins Children's)
Pre-School Award
Mr Pusskins by Sam Lloyd (Orchard Books)
(Booktrust Early Years Awards Ceremony,
27.09.06)
Letter to the Daily Telegraph
Sir - As professionals and academics from a range of backgrounds,
we are deeply concerned at the escalating incidence of childhood
depression and children's behavioural and developmental conditions.
We believe this is largely due to a lack of understanding,
on the part of both politicians and the general public, of
the realities and subtleties of child development.
Since children's brains are still developing, they cannot
adjust - as full-grown adults can - to the effects of ever
more rapid technological and cultural change. They still need
what developing human beings have always needed, including
real food (as opposed to processed "junk"), real play (as
opposed to sedentary, screen-based entertainment), first-hand
experience of the world they live in and regular interaction
with the real-life significant adults in their lives.
They also need time. In a fast-moving hyper-competitive culture,
today's children are expected to cope with an ever-earlier
start to formal schoolwork and an overly academic test-driven
primary curriculum. They are pushed by market forces to act
and dress like mini-adults and exposed via the electronic
media to material which would have been considered unsuitable
for children even in the very recent past.
Our society rightly takes great pains to protect children
from physical harm, but seems to have lost sight of their
emotional and social needs. However, it's now clear that the
mental health of an unacceptable number of children is being
unnecessarily compromised, and that this is almost certainly
a key factor in the rise of substance abuse, violence and
self-harm amongst our young people.
This is a complex socio-cultural problem to which there is
no simple solution, but a sensible first step would be to
encourage parents and policy-makers to start talking about
ways of improving children's well-being. We therefore propose
as a matter of urgency that public debate be initiated on
child-rearing in the 21st century this issue should be central
to public policy-making in coming decades.
(Daily Telegraph, 12.09.06)
Liz Attenborough of Talk To Your Baby was one of the signatories
to this letter. It resulted in the Daily Telegraph launching
the Hold on to Childhood campaign.
To find out more about the campaign or to participate, visit
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?view=BLOGDETAIL&grid=P30&blog=yourview&xml=/news/2006/09/13/nchild13.xml
Liz Attenborough, manager of Talk
To Your Baby, the early language campaign for the National
Literacy Trust, on the benefits of baby babbling.
Young children's communication skills are a cause for concern.
In a 2001 survey of nursery heads, the National Association
of Head Teachers found that 75 per cent were concerned that
children's language competence at entry had dropped significantly
over the previous five years.
In 2003 I was asked by the National Literacy Trust to set
up a campaign to address this problem. We called it Talk To
Your Baby. We view communication and language as the core
of social and emotional development as well as the basis for
learning. One primary teacher told me that five years ago
she used to highlight the children with language problems,
now she only highlights the ones without. There is no single
cause, but it is true that people do not talk to their children
as much as they used to. Many children watch television alone
in their bedrooms, family mealtimes are in decline and family
units are smaller, with fewer siblings and grannies to talk
to.
None of us remembers learning to talk, we don't know how
we did it, but children need to learn it - it doesn't just
happen by osmosis. Parents must allow a child to babble without
a dummy in its mouth, because babbling is the early part of
language. We want parents to feel that they can help their
child's language to develop, so on our website we have information
sheets in nine languages. Tips include reading together -
a fabulous way of increasing vocabulary - and singing, because
children learn language more easily if there's a tune attached.
Every new parent in Plymouth last year got one of these sheets,
and health visitors are trained to introduce it, which is
great.
Because we're only a one-and-a-half person campaign, we're
not trying to do things on the ground; we support professionals
who work with families, and we try to reach parents directly
through the media. We want to raise the debate. People say
that they don't see people talking to their babies in the
street, so they don't do it either because they don't want
to look stupid. Instead of old ladies tutting every time a
child makes a noise, wouldn't it be great if we had a culture
that encouraged children to be seen and heard?
(The Times Public Agenda, 12.09.06)
Speech and language therapy services are in 'crisis' according
to a new report revealing that the majority of services will
be unable to meet future patient needs. The Royal College
of Speech and Language Therapists (RCSLT), which commissioned
the report, says there is a 'devastating de-prioritisation'
of speech therapy services by local primary care trusts (PCTs).
It claims that 78% of speech and language therapists across
the UK have had their budgets reduced or frozen in the coming
year.
Jane MacKenzie, national policy officer at RCSLT, says many
local speech and language therapy departments are now badly
underfunded. She points to the situation in the Value of Aylesbury
in Buckinghamshire, where speech therapists have been turning
children away because of staff shortages. "Earlier this year,
the Home Office recognised speech and language therapists
as an occupational shortage," she says. "But our research
shows that nearly two-thirds of managers say they are unable
to take on any new therapists this year."
Worse still, she says, is that 80% of 2006 speech and language
therapy graduates have been unable to find jobs. "This is
madness when you consider that this year an NHS workforce
review predicted that it will take 10 years until there are
enough speech and language therapists to meet the needs of
local communities," says MacKenzie. "The reality on the ground
is that local PCT commissioners are trying to balance their
books by slashing so-called 'soft' services like speech and
language therapy, with no consideration of central government
policy or the long-term consequences of their actions."
The college says there is more need for speech and language
therapy intervention for children, thanks to better recognition
of problems such as autism and learning difficulties. The
rise in strokes and better cancer survival have also led to
a spike in patients needing help.
(Annie Kelly, The Guardian, 06.09.06)
DVDs are better than books for helping small babies develop
vital learning skills, says a top researcher. Babies have
to use their eyes and brain to track movement in images from
DVDs, but static pages in a book provide no stimulation, explains
Professor Annette Karmiloff-Smith, a world leading scientist
specialising in baby development. The professor, who works
at the Institute of Child Health (ICH) and Great Ormond Street
Hospital, London, says 'emotional reactions' have held back
many parents from using educational DVDs to help their children.
But scientific research shows interacting with moving images
encourages them to optimise each stage of development. Normal
TV viewing is too complicated, however, and causes babies
to become 'mesmerised' as they struggle with too-rapid movements
and poor colour differentiation. Prof. Karmiloff-Smith is
the scientific advisor on Baby Bright DVDs, a range of baby
development videos underpinned by her ongoing research programme
designed to maximise interaction between infants and the screen.
She says that from the age of three months, infants are attracted
by movement, while scientific studies show babies love looking
at faces, so the DVD series has lots of close-ups. She adds:
"Rather than stare passively at the centre of the screen,
it is important to enable babies to track moving objects with
their eyes and anticipate where objects will appear next."
She says babies need to see partial images from which they
can build up a whole image - just as in real life.
"But TV and some so-called baby videos are not based on the
science of child development and they both have the same problem
- they make the baby a passive observer," she adds. "It's
a controversial idea, but good-quality DVDs are better than
books between the ages of three and five months.
"Parents should not be worried about using DVDs - why do
they use mobiles above the cot if it's not to stimulate the
baby - but they have to be prepared to interact with them
just as you would do when reading a book," she says. Prof.
Karmiloff-Smith, who heads the neurocognitive development
unit at ICH, says two-thirds of children under two years watch
TV or videos most days but they should not spend more than
an hour in front of the screen. "Children should never have
a TV in their bedrooms at any age because they watch too much
and unsuitable programmes."
(Daily Mail, 05.09.06)
Parents are condemning their children to a lifetime of obesity
and back problems by not letting them walk at a young enough
age, paediatricians have warned. Rather than outgrowing their
prams and pushchairs by the age of two or three, an increasing
number of older children - some up to primary school age -
are still being wheeled about, because their parents are too
busy or too afraid to let them walk.
A child development specialist Dr Martin Ward-Platt, of the
Royal Victoria Infirmary, in Newcastle, said: "It is a worrying
trend. But one now takes for granted the sight of big children
being pushed around in buggies, when in the past this was
simply not the case. It is done for a number of reasons. There
is convenience and control, as well as perceptions about safety
- no running off onto busy main roads. But many children who
have a bit of a whinge also can easily be silenced if stuffed
into a chair."
He added: "It is not doing them any good. One has to bear
in mind the pushchair is a recent invention in terms of human
evolution. Once children could walk, they were expected to
toddle along on their own two feet. Anything that reduces
exercise in young children, broadly speaking, is not a good
idea. Anything that is allowing calories to accumulate week
after week means you could end up with a problem with weight.
Children need to be active as early as possible."
Half of all babies start to walk by 12 months, and the remainder
are toddling by 18 months. In the past, traditional, heavy
prams were usually abandoned by the age of two, with reins
used for safety when the child was walking. However, the advent
of lightweight buggies made it an easy option for parents
to keep wheeling their children about well past the toddler
stage. Some even take pushchairs to the school gates to collect
their five and six-year-olds.
(Beezy Marsh, Health Correspondent, The
Telegraph, 27.08.06)
The bright lights of hospitals may slow the development of
premature babies and make them feel 'depressed', says new
research. In much the same way that a lack of daylight can
exacerbate depression among adults, known as seasonal affective
disorder, babies under constant, harsh lighting may gain weight
slowly and feel unhappy.
Andrew Shennan, professor of obstetrics for Tommy's, the
baby charity, said: "The link between light exposure and its
effects on mood and behaviour are now quite firmly established,
supported by research into conditions such as SAD. Currently,
any babies who are admitted to a special care baby unit are
exposed to incredibly harsh lighting."
A study in the journal Paediatric
Research, by Douglas McMahon, professor of biological
sciences at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee, found that
exposing baby mice to constant light kept the biological clock
in their brains from developing properly and could have a
lasting effect on their behaviour.
(Sarah Womack, Social Affairs Correspondent,
The Telegraph, 21.08.06)
Parentline, the national charity for parents, has added a
new online community to its website. The new section features
message boards where parents can exchange information and
provide support for one another and a Q and A section where
parents can ask questions on any subject from bullying to
budgeting. Parentline is especially interested to hear whether
black and minority ethnic parents are receiving the support
and information they need and have added a new survey to the
site to collect their views.
The website also features a new section on travelling with
children, with hints and tips on how to plan your journey
and how to survive the boredom of long car journeys. For more
information or to fill in the survey, visit www.parentlineplus.org.uk
(My child, August/September 2006)
A major independent study has been launched to understand
and address the issues faced by today's children and young
people. The Good Childhood Inquiry, managed by The Children's
Society, aims to renew society's understanding of childhood
in the twenty-first century.
The charity said it believes too many children in the UK
are experiencing poor childhoods. It launched the inquiry
after research found that the wellbeing of children in the
UK is among the lowest in Europe, with many, particularly
refugee children, those in trouble with the law and disabled
children, experiencing increased levels of mental health problems.
Lord Layard, emeritus professor of economics at the London
School of Economics, will chair the independent inquiry panel.
(Extracted from an article by Nicole Weinstein,
Nursery World, 03.08.06)
For more information visit www.childrenssociety.org.uk/
Teachers' TV is running its Learning for Fun strand every
morning throughout August, from 6am to 10am, Monday to Friday.
The programmes are aimed at the youngest children and are
designed so that viewers enjoy playing, while receiving structured
learning at the same time.
Monday 7 August is the start of Every Child Matters week.
Programmes will show how children and their carers and teachers
are being affected by the new government legislation.
From Monday 27 August there will be a strand of early years
programmes for one hour from 12pm, 6pm and 10pm daily. They
will include Early Years in Action: Listening Skills for Staff,
in which a nursery emphasises the importance of listening
to young children, and Early Years Workshop: Nursery 1 & 2,
showing techniques for observing and assessing nursery children.
You can see Teachers' TV on Sky 880, Telewest 240, ntl 803,
HomeChoice 845 and Freeview 88 (12-6am). Teachers TV programmes
are available to download for free from www.teachers.tv
(Adapted from Sure Start News, Issue 41,
03.08.06)
Early reading pilot schemes, which involve specialist training
with practitioners, will be extended to more areas from next
term, with funding until September 2008. National director
of the Foundation Stage Ruth Pimentel said the scheme, which
started last September in 180 schools and linked early years
settings in 18 areas, would be extended to 32 more local authorities.
She also confirmed that the 'early reading development pilots'
had been renamed 'communication, language and literacy development'.
Ms Pimentel said: "It's to broaden it out to look at building
on speaking and listening and the understanding that children's
language development is the building block to their reading
success."
The scheme supports professional development and involves
clusters of practitioners in local areas sharing knowledge.
It uses materials such as Sure Start's Communicating Matters
and traditional nursery rhymes and poetry cards, linking these
with the outdoor area, music and movement.
(Catherine Gaunt, Nursery World, 20.07.06)
TTYB's Liz Attenborough comments on
the changing face of early years provision in Nursery Education
magazine.
The fact that childcare issues are now high on the political
agenda has been a huge change. Nobody would think of putting
out a party manifesto today without including childcare issues.
Schools and early years settings are making an effort to involve
parents, but we are still a long way from parents feeling
empowered. If you talk about synthetic phonics, it scares
parents off. You need to say to them: "You have a role to
play. This is what you can do." If you get parents on board,
you will have much better results, so it is absolutely worth
the investment.
Liz Attenborough, Manager of Talk To
Your Baby, National Literacy Trust
(Nursery Education, August 2006)
As part of its early years focus, Teachers' TV is running
a range of programmes for early years workers and pupils.
From 24 July it is running a Learning For Fun strand for two
weeks, with early years programmes from 6am to 9am each day.
Teachers' TV is available on Sky 880, Telewest 240, ntl 803,
KIT 70, HomeChoice 845 and Freeview 88 (12-6am). Programmes
can also be downloaded for free from www.teachers.tv,
where there is a full schedule listing.
ITV is to broadcast a new series from 17 July, which will
show families using the Triple P Parenting programme to manage
their children's behaviour. They are inviting parents of three
to nine-year-olds to work alongside the series, which is called
'Driving Mum and Dad Mad' by trying out the positive parenting
advice for themselves, as part of a national research project.
Parents interested in taking part in the project should visit
www.greatparentingexperiment.net
A new stakeholder group that will advise Ministers on the
implementation of the Government's 10-Year Childcare Strategy
and wider early years and childcare policy meets for the first
time today.
The new Sure Start, Extended Schools and Child Care Stakeholder
Group is chaired by Dame Julie Mellor and consists of members
from local authorities, health, the private and voluntary
sector and frontline staff. Its role will be to:
- Act as a forum for discussion of the implementation issues
arising from the 10 Year Strategy, and the impact on various
partners.
- Act as a sounding board for emerging plans, guidance and
regulations.
- Feed back to Ministers and policy makers on the impact
of the Strategy, focussing on the effect on front line practice
and child outcomes.
- Advise on the best way that the Department and others
can support delivery.
Children and Families Minster Beverley Hughes said: "Our
10-Year Childcare Strategy made clear the Government's commitment
to give any child the benefits of extended activities at school
and give every parent the choice and flexibility in balancing
home and work life. The action plan that we published in April
set the agenda for implementing it but the Government will
not be able to achieve this alone. The Sure Start, Extended
Schools and Childcare Stakeholder group will provide an essential
forum for us to engage with our partners, to learn from best
practice and work together to overcome the challenges ahead.
I very much look forward to working with Dame Julie and the
other members."
Dame Julie Mellor said: "The investment that we have seen
in early years and childcare in recent years is something
that we should all value and be proud of. However, we must
make sure that the time, effort and money being put in is
making the biggest possible difference to the lives of children
and families. The experience of practitioners and front line
managers will be vital in ensuring that this happens and I
am delighted to be chairing a group of such experienced and
dedicated people. Together I am sure that we can make a valuable
contribution as the Government implements its 10-Year Childcare
Strategy."
(Department for Education and Skills,
22.06.06)
It is the dilemma that all new parents face. Should a baby
be instantly comforted when upset - or left to cry for a few
minutes? Scientists claim to have solved the problem after
a study found that babies who are ignored just cry more. And
this behaviour carries on for at least the first three months
of their lives, the experts say.
Parents who adopt a 'hands off' approach to childcare have
babies who cry 50 per cent more than infants who are picked
up and comforted straight away, say researchers. It suggests
that holding babies for around ten hours a day produces infants
that fuss the least. The findings will reignite debate about
whether or not parents should leave babies to cry.
Some experts, such as Gina Ford, believe in set sleeping
and feeding routines. They say that if babies wake up and
cry during designated sleeping hours, they should not be picked
up. But child development expert Professor Margot Sunderland
claims that leaving children to cry could make them more susceptible
to depression.
Now Professor Ian St James Roberts, from the University of
London's Institute of Education, has looked at whether babies'
crying relates to how often they are held. The study reported
today in New Scientist magazine, involved three groups of
new parents. The first set came from London, the second from
Copenhagen and a third was a mixed group of parents from Denmark,
the US and the UK. The mixed group had declared they planned
to practise 'proximal care', which involves picking up and
holding children for much of the time they are awake and responding
rapidly if they cry.
It is based on the theory that babies need constant physical
contact with another human from birth. They sleep in their
parents' bed and are fed on demand. Parents in the study were
asked to complete a diary of their infant's crying, and this
was backed up by audio recordings and questionnaires on feeding
and sleeping habits. When the babies were ten days old, the
proximal group were typically holding their children for around
16 hours a day. The Copenhagen parents held their infants
for just under ten hours and the London group for eight and
a half hours.
The researchers found that at two and five weeks of age,
the babies who were held for just eight and a half hours a
day were crying and fussing 50 per cent more than the others.
Even at 12 weeks of age they were still crying more, according
to the study, which will be published in the June edition
of the Journal Pediatrics. Professor St James Roberts concluded
that comforting your baby on demand could reduce fussing and
crying for the early weeks of life.
(By Julie Wheldon, Daily Mail, 01.06.06)
Babies aged four months are able to organise visual information
in three different ways - by brightness, shape and proximity
- new research shows. A study by psychologists at Reading
and London South Bank Universities, funded by the Economic
and Social Research Council, found that infants are more capable
of categorising things they see around them than previously
believed.
As well as progressing to object recognition, an infant's
visual attention has implications for memory, motor skills
and other development. Dr Emily Farran from Reading University
said: "Our findings show that infants start to organise their
visual world from a very early age."
Sixty-three infants were tested at two, four, six and eight
months by being placed in front of a screen and presented
with an array of circles in horizontal lines, some of which
were light and some dark. When the babies stopped looking
they were said to be habituated.
Dr Farran said: "Then, instead of showing them one image
we showed them two, one depicting horizontal stripes and the
other vertical stripes . What we were looking for was a preference.
This shows that they recognised that the original image was
organised into rows [of different brightness]."
Differentiating brightness was observed at just two months,
which supports the belief that this visual awareness is present
in newborns. Proximity grouping, measuring how close visual
objects are to each other, and shape grouping, both occurred
at four months.
See www.esrcsocietytoday.co.uk
for details of the study.
(Laura Marcus, Nursery World, 11.05.06)
A project that places 14 to 16-year-olds as mentors in day
nurseries to discourage them from getting pregnant is expanding
rapidly and may go nationwide.
Teens and Toddlers pairs teenagers from local schools in
areas with high teen pregnancy rates with nursery children
for two hours a week for 20 weeks. It began in Greenwich,
London, in 2001 and is run by the non-profit foundation, Children:
Our Ultimate Investment. (COUI).
Director Diana Whitmore said: "If you give teens a live,
hands-on experience of the responsibility, work and privilege
it is to have a child, they are more inclined to wait before
having children. We've delivered in six boroughs and these
local authorities want to mainstream the programme."
[.] Ms Whitmore said: "We ask the nurseries to assign each
teen a child who's perhaps shy or who hasn't got English as
their first language. Social skills and communication is where
there is the biggest impact. The nursery staff are keen to
embrace and accept the young people and the young people get
a sense of achievement."
(By Laura Marcus, Nursery World, 25.05.06)
Baby talk is under scrutiny with a project to film a toddler
for 14 hours a day until he reaches his third birthday. It's
an attempt by Professor Deb Roy, of the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology, to understand how babies learn language. He
has volunteered his own son for this baby Truman Show. Ethical?
"He might be the first person to have a memory that goes back
to birth," says Professor Roy gamely.
(The Times, 22.05.06)
They're bombarded with electronics starting in infancy, from
the new Sesame Street for six-month-olds to game-playing laptops
for toddlers. But when does being a multimedia youngster help
- and when does it hurt - children's malleable brains?
The claims vary widely, from proponents who say TV and baby
software can help kids learn to criticisms that it steals
crucial time once spent playing and reading, or even causes
attention disorders. The reality: There is little clear data
on how TV affects child development at any age, much less
before age two - and even less research on computers for tots,
video games, and other now-pervasive electronic media. So
lament child experts called together by the National Institutes
of Health on Monday to debate what research is most needed,
and what to tell parents in the meantime.
"Content does matter. Television designed to enhance cognitive
development does so," said University of Massachusetts psychologist
Daniel Anderson, referring to the well-studied preschool shows
Sesame Street and Blue's Clues. But, "other kinds of TV or
too much TV may interfere with cognitive development," he
warned. "Most immediately, we need to know the effects of
very early media exposure."
The American Academy of Pediatrics says children under two
shouldn't watch TV at all, and that older kids should watch
no more than two hours a day. Yet the Kaiser Family Foundation
found in 2003 that two-thirds of children under two were watching
TV an hour a day plus almost another hour of computer or video-like
games. Almost half of four- to six-year-olds had TVs in their
bedrooms. And after age eight, 'screen time' - TV plus computers
and other electronic media - soared to 6.5 hours a day, on
average.
For babies in particular, there's a skyrocketing market:
The Baby Einstein video craze aside, there's a new satellite
TV channel just for babies, a computer game that requires
infants to bang the keyboard to change the screen, and a multitude
of talking books and DVD-based 'learning systems'. Why? Parents
in general don't view electronic media as bad. In fact, they
often ask if their babies will miss out if they don't sit
them in front of the computer early, noted David Bickham of
the Children's Hospital of Boston media and child health center.
"There's a reason why parents put the two-year-old in front
of the television," agreed Amy Jordan of the University of
Pennsylvania. Maybe they live in a neighborhood where it's
not safe to play outside, or they just need time to cook or
take a shower. When it comes to older kids, many parents consider
watching American Idol with their preteen quality family time
- and few parents even know how to use those TV ratings mandated
to help determine age-appropriate content, Jordan says. When
'Y7 FV' flashed in the corner of the screen, for instance,
many parents told her they thought it meant 'family values'
- when it really means not for under age seven, contains fantasy
violence.
What does the existing research say? There's little disagreement
that violent programs are bad for kids, leading to fear and
aggressive behavior, and that TV in a kid's bedroom leads
to sleep disorders. Other issues are confusing. A few studies
suggest that baby or preschool TV might lead to attention
disorders, because the rapid pace of programming alters brain
development - while other studies directly contradict that.
When it comes to learning, the child's age and the program's
content seem key. Take babies. They are watching the new Sesame
Beginnings videos for infants. The videos were an outgrowth
of The Sesame Workshop after it learned that viewing of its
classic Sesame Street now peaks at age two - far earlier than
the three- to five-year-olds it targets to teach reading and
math concepts. "What a one-year-old is getting from Sesame
Street content leaves us baffled," said workshop vice president
Rosemarie Truglio. She describes the new baby videos as showing
parents different ways to interact with their infants rather
than aiming to 'teach' the tiniest viewer. "Frankly I think
the don't-watch-TV-under-age-two pediatrics recommendation,
in this day and age, is not helpful," said Ellen Wartella
of the University of California, Riverside, who instead wants
more constructive advice for parents.
Among the suggestions offered Monday:
- No adult TV when youngsters are in the room. Rachel Barr
of Georgetown University says parents think babies aren't
paying attention, but research showed when Jeopardy was
on in the background, tots' play was distracted.
- If you need to pop in a video for the under-two set while
you cook dinner, talk them through it. "Look, that's a ball,
just like your ball." "Oh, see the kitty - what does a kitty
say?" It helps their comprehension, Barr's research shows.
(By Lauran Neergaard, The Associated Press,
www.usatoday.com,
15.05.06)
One of the hottest topics for debate over recent months has
been the impact of television on tots. On one side there are
those who believe Teletubbies are the saviour of every stressed
out family and on the other, those who view the box as nothing
less than a window to hell. Even 'expert' research has thrown
up conflicting views so where does this leave parents who
are nervously hovering over the on/off switch?
In the much publicised book 'Remotely Controlled', author
Aric Sigman recommends that under-threes shouldn't watch TV
at all and beyond that age, children should watch a maximum
of one hour a day, tops. The theory is that TV with its fast-paced,
technicolour imagery hard-wires expectations in children's
brains who then find it difficult to establish concentration
on more gentle things, including reading and language development.
"TV," claims Sigman, "is so hugely powerful because, compared
to the pace with which real life unfolds and is experienced
by young children, it portrays life with the fast-forward
button fully pressed. Rapidly changing images, scenery and
events, and high-fidelity sounds are overly stimulating and,
of course, extremely interesting.
"Once you are used to food with monosodium glutamate flavour
enhancer, real food doesn't taste as interesting. Television
is the flavour enhancer of the audiovisual world, providing
unnatural levels of sensory stimulation. Nothing in real life
is comparable to this. Television overpays the child to pay
attention to it, and in so doing it seems to physically spoil
and damage his attention circuits."
Here in the UK, the National Literacy Trust has been so concerned
about such claims that they commissioned their own research
on the impact of television on language learning and held
a conference to discuss the findings with academics, speech
and language therapists and programme makers. And the good
news for parents is that there does seem to be some middle
ground.
Liz Attenborough, manager of NLT's Talk To Your baby campaign
says: "We wanted to know if television really is to blame
for the difficulties in communication that many young children
seem to have when they arrive in school. What we found is
that there are many social and cultural factors that have
an impact, but that in the right circumstances television
may be useful for young children's language development. TV
has been part of our popular culture for over 50 years and
continues to be so," says Liz. "By itself, it's neither the
cause nor the answer to language issues. What's important
is that parents and carers are aware of the pros and cons
of TV watching and maximise the opportunities whilst diminishing
potential risks."
It's important to remember that a lot of the headline grabbing
research as to how children are affected by TV comes from
America and as such is slightly misleading. British children's
programming is quite different from US TV, where many of the
studies have been based on audience samples exposed to unsupervised
and unsuitable viewing, relative to age. In the UK, the BBC
is quite unique in that it still holds dear the value of 'public
service' and isn't a slave to rampant commercialism. The CBeebies
channel is aimed specifically at pre-schoolers and focuses
on education and entertainment designed to encourage learning
through play. Some of the most popular programmes to be seen
on the channel include Tweenies, Balamory, Bedtime Hour, Charlie
& Lola, Boogie Beebies and Big Cook Little Cook.
Since its inception in February 2002, one million pre-school
children enjoy the channel each week and CBeebies is now the
number one children's pre-school channel offering a broad
range of UK-produced programming available on all major digital
platforms to UK audiences. Clare Elstow, who heads the BBC's
pre-school unit, is staunch in her defence of the quality
and charm of CBeebies programming: "This highly experienced
group of people make great TV for toddlers by spending their
working lives trying to see through their eyes.
"We're not governed by ratings or advertiser requirements,"
says Clare. "Programme commissioners rely on a network of
nurseries, pre-schools and carers around the country to research
their ideas. They have loads of advisers, literacy guidelines
and early learning standards to call on and the bottom line
is this highly experienced group of people make great TV for
toddlers by spending their working lives trying to see through
their eyes."
That might explain why a blue cow, drawn in crayon, can transfix
a raucous three year old while mere adults remain baffled
by the banality of it all. But it doesn't give parents an
excuse to opt out and just plonk their tiny treasure in front
of the box while they get on with something more interesting.
To make the most of TV viewing, and ensure it's a positive
experience for little ones, the NLT has the following advice:
- Although watching the same video over and over may eventually
impinge on a parent's sanity, the repetition and familiarity
of words and phrases makes it easier for children to learn
from them.
- For a child to learn from a TV programme or video they
need the opportunity to talk about what they have watched
with an adult - this is easier to do when an adult and child
watch together.
- It is especially important that younger children watch
programming designed for their age group. This is difficult
when watching with an older brother or sister who may dominate
the remote control. Set aside TV time for all siblings.
- When the programme or video has finished, turn it off.
There is no substitute for talking with children.
With over 95% of UK households containing at least one TV
set, there's no getting away from the issues but, at the end
of the day, it seems that television will not necessarily
turn our children into illiterate, anti-social monsters. The
key lies in proper supervision and guidance, both over the
quantity and quality of viewing - and when it comes down to
that, no researcher, programmer or author can do it better
than mum and dad.
(Sprouts, May - June 2006)
Educational baby videos and DVDs that claim to enhance cognitive
development may be a waste of time and money, psychologists
said yesterday.
One DVD by the Baby Einstein brand, which is available online,
claims to "foster the development of your toddler's speech
and language skills" in babies over one year old. Another,
by the company Brainy Baby, which uses the slogan "a little
genius in the making", says it will "inspire logical thinking"
in babies over six months old. But experts say parental interaction
and the use of simple toys such as empty cotton reels and
building blocks are far more effective.
Charles Ward, the general secretary of the Association of
Educational Psychologists, said: "Leaving an infant in front
of the television is not going to help their development at
all."
Brainy Baby said it would produce evidence to show that its
products were useful and did not advocate leaving babies alone
in front of the television. Sarah Tremeer, the British distributor,
said: "Psychologists who have not watched our products should
not make claims about them. All of our award-winning DVDs
are backed up by books, games and puzzles and we are keen
to encourage parent and child interaction."
A complaint against the US marketing claims of Baby Einstein,
part of the Disney empire, and Brainy Baby has been lodged
with the US Federal Trade Commission. A group led by Dr Alvin
Poussaint, a professor of psychiatry at Harvard University,
claimed that the advertisements were misleading because there
was no evidence that they helped babies to learn. They have
generated sales of $1 billion (£540 million) in the US since
their launch in the mid-1990s.
The British promotional literature, which is not the subject
of an official complaint, makes more modest claims in some
cases. The Baby Einstein videos and DVDs claim through their
Mothercare outlet to create a "multi-sensory learning resource".
Brainy Baby's British website states that the Peek-A-Boo video
and DVD is "brain-stimulating" and will help "nurture such
important skills as.language development". Baby Einstein declined
to comment on the claims but said its products were designed
as interactive tools for parents to use with their children.
The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health does not
make a recommendation about how much television babies and
toddlers can safely watch. However, the National Literacy
Trust says viewing should be limited to 30 minutes a day with
a parent. Some experts suggest infants and toddlers could
be 'spoiled' for book learning by DVDs. Others argue that
such products will not do any harm and can help parents understand
how children play.
(Amy Iggulden, Telegraph, 11.05.06)
The phenomenally successful market in 'baby genius' videos
is under attack from American child psychologists, and the
US government is considering forcing the companies who make
them to withdraw claims that they help develop young children's
intelligence.
The videos and DVDs, with names such as Baby Einstein, Brainy
Baby and Baby Genius, have generated $1bn (£540 million) in
sales in the US since their launch in the mid-90s. They are
increasingly popular in the UK, where the market leader, Baby
Einstein, part of the Disney empire, distributes its products
through Mothercare.
A campaign group led by the Harvard psychologist Susan Linn
has filed a complaint with the federal trade commission, arguing
that advertisements for the videos in the US are false and
deceptive because there is no evidence that watching them
helps babies learn.
"The bind is that parents in this country are under terrible
stress, so the idea that these videos might be educational
is helpful for them, because it makes it OK to put babies
in front of screens," said Ms Linn, co-founder of the Campaign
for a Commercial-Free Childhood. "These companies have been
doing a really good job of convincing parents that these videos
are education - but there's no evidence that television is
beneficial, and some evidence that it may be harmful."
The Baby Einstein range, targeted at under-2s, name-drops
great figures from science and the arts; titles include Baby
Bach, Baby Newton and Baby Mozart Music Festival. Baby Wordsworth
'will foster the development of your toddler's speech and
language skills', the company claims on its US website, though
its British promotional literature is more modest. Rival firm
Brainy Baby claims its Peek-a-Boo video is 'brain stimulating',
and will help 'nurture such important skills as..cause and
effect [and] language development'.
Many Baby Einstein videos consist largely of footage of other
commercially available toys, thus serving essentially as advertising,
according to campaigners. The company, which did not return
calls seeking comment, does not manufacture the toys but benefits
financially from 'a licensing deal like any other licensing
deal', Ms Linn said.
The backlash against the videos was fuelled by a study published
in December by the Kaiser Family Foundation, which found no
evidence that the products helped babies learn - but discovered
that 49% of American parents believed they were important
in their children's education. The American Academy of Paediatrics
recommends that children under two should watch no television
at all.
"Nowhere does it say, 'If you buy this video it's guaranteed
that your child will become a rocket scientist'," Dennis Fedoruk,
founder of Brainy Baby, told the Guardian. He said his products
should not be used as babysitters, and he had decided to change
the firm's slogan from A Little Genius in the Making, to Learning
for a Lifetime, after Kaiser expressed concern.
"That tagline is in extremely small type on the back cover
beneath our logo, and I don't know of a single consumer confused
by this tagline, but if it makes them happy, OK, no problem."
(The Guardian, 03.05.06)
The fifth annual National Sure Start month, themed 'Your
Children, Your Choices', kicks off on 5 June.
The Daycare Trust will run National Childcare Week, called
'Children at the Centre', from 5-11 June, during which it
will hold its Partners In Excellence awards for service providers.
The winners of the children's 'Me and my ideal childcare'
art competition, held in partnership with Nursery World, will
be named on 9 June at the Tate Britain, London.
The Pre-School Learning Alliance hosts Pre-School Play Week
from 17-25 June, with its national conference on 25 June.
National Childminding Week, from 17-24 June, focuses on health
with events such as fun runs and picnics.
The National Day Nurseries Association will run Sure Start
month's website and information helpline. Updates can be found
at www.nationalsurestartmonth.com.
The charity 4Children will hold 'Shout out for Children Week'
from 27 June - 3 July and host the annual Childcare Stars
awards at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, London, on 29 June.
(Laura Marcus, Nursery World, 13.04.06)
The core skills, knowledge and competences needed to gain
Early Years Professional (EYP) status are the subject of a
draft set of standards put out for consultation by the Children's
Workforce Development Council (CWDC). It is hoped the profession
will attract graduates from a wide range of backgrounds, including
teachers, social workers and community nurses, as well as
those with early years, childhood and play qualifications.
CWDC chief executive Jane Haywood told Nursery World: "We
think there are very few people in the workforce at present
who have the full certified package. If you're a qualified
teacher, you probably haven't done enough on child development
and the nought to threes. If you've got your early years foundation
degree you're at a level 5 and you'll need to do a top-up,
and if you're an early childhood studies graduate, academically
you've got it but you probably haven't got the practice experience."
Candidates who do not hold a degree or relevant qualification
also have the chance to become an EYP if they 'demonstrate
that, by other means, they have the knowledge, skills and
understanding equivalent to such a qualification'. They will
also need a minimum of 'two years relevant experience covering
birth to the end of the Foundation Stage'.
CWDC national development manager for early years Pauline
Jones said: "We don't want to close the door on any group.
The pathway will vary depending on people's backgrounds. Also,
we will be working with very experienced training providers
who will be able to make these decisions."
CWDC is looking for ten organisations across England to deliver
the EYP training. Pilot training and assessment programmes
will be introduced this September, and the first EYPs will
be in place by 2007. Ms Haywood said: "This is not about shipping
in a set of professionals to tell everyone else how to do
it; it's about upskilling the whole workforce. It's important
we get the work-based routes in place."
However, early years consultants have expressed concerns
that teachers could be displaced by EYPs and a two-tier system
could be created, with those teaching the under-fives viewed
as inferior to those teaching beyond the Foundation Stage.
Ms Haywood acknowledged that the relationship between Qualified
Teachers status and EYP status was one of the 'big issues'.
Currently children's centres are required to have access
to an early years teacher on a half-time basis, but it is
yet to be decided if the EYP will replace this. The Government
wants an EYP in every children's centre by 2010, and in every
full daycare setting by 2015. The CWDC believes that over
time the Early Years Foundation Stage should be delivered
only by people with EYP status.
The consultation ends on 19 May, and a final version of the
standards will be published in July. The consultation is at
www.cwdcouncil.org.uk.
(Nicole Weinstein, Nursery World, 13.04.06)
Early years experts are seriously concerned that the new
Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) will have a 'top-down'
effect on the youngest children in daycare and that it is
effectively a 'curriculum' for babies, Nursery World has learned.
The revelations come in the same week that education minister
Ruth Kelly launched an action plan on the ten-year childcare
strategy, which included more details of the EYFS, the new
framework for children from birth to five, in advance of a
formal consultation next month.
When children's minister Beverley Hughes first announced
the new title for the birth-to-five framework late last year,
it was widely understood by the early years sector that the
intention was to combine the existing key frameworks Birth
to Three Matters and the Curriculum Guidance for the Foundation
Stage.
However, Nursery World has spoken to early years experts
who have attended consultation events on the new framework
in the past two weeks and they have voiced grave concerns
about the suitability of the EYFS for babies and toddlers.
In its current form, practitioners have told Nursery World,
the EYFS is too formal an approach for children from birth
to three. They also fear that the guidance and support available
to early years practitioners and childminders through Birth
to Three Matters will be lost.
While the Birth to Three Matters framework focused on four
'aspects' of development, the EYFS clearly refers to 'six
areas of learning and development' from birth to five - the
same areas of learning currently used in the Foundation Stage.
One early years practitioner, who has seen drafts of four
of the six areas of learning, said: "We laughed at the newspapers
saying it's a national curriculum for babies, but now we find
it is a national curriculum for babies. Birth to Three Matters
has basically been abolished." The practitioner said that
the six areas of learning had been 'pushed down' to the nought-to-threes.
"As soon as you break it up into the six areas of learning,
it becomes a curriculum."
The action plan on the ten-year strategy states that the
EYFS 'will set out requirements to promote the well-being
of every child and provide high quality experiences covering
six areas of learning and development'. Although the EYFS
does not become statutory until September 2008, the literacy
and mathematics elements will be available for nurseries and
childminders by September this year. However, drafts of these
were apparently not shown to early years experts who attended
the recent consultation events.
The early years expert added that the influence of the Rose
Review, for teaching of formal synthetic phonics to five-year-olds,
would lead to pressure on literacy and numeracy in reception
classes and that the Foundation Stage would be driven down
to the youngest children.
Early years specialist Jennie Lindon, who has also seen a
draft of the EYFS, said: "There are positive elements within
the draft materials, but it is not possible to judge the final
balance of the document at this stage. However my most serious
concern is that, as exemplified by the recommendations in
the Rose Review, there will be immense pressure to have a
top-down approach and developmentally inappropriate methods
will spread beyond literacy."
(Catherine Gaunt, Nursery World, 13.04.06)
Play England, a five-year project to support children's play
in England, was launched on Tuesday 28 March with a £15m grant
from the Big Lottery Fund.Play England will set up a national
and regional support infrastructure to advise local authorities
in developing play strategies and bidding for money from the
Big Lottery Fund's £124m Children's Play Programme. The project
is based at the Children's Play Council, part of NCB.
A new website (www.playengland.org.uk)
has been developed to provide resources and information for
planners, details of workshops and networking opportunities
and advocacy and campaigning support. In addition, a good
practice guide, Planning for Play, will be sent to local authorities
in England. The guide, published by the Big Lottery Fund,
looks at the production and implementation of play strategies,
covering everything from the principles of good play provision
to involving the community and linking with local plans such
as housing and open space. It is also available to download
from the website.
"Play England aims to cement the future of children's play
by giving local agencies the necessary backing and expertise,"
explained Adrian Voce, director of the Children's Play Council.
"Hopefully this will ensure best use of the money available
to improve play opportunities and make a lasting difference
for children and young people. Every child should have access
to play provision that is free, local and inclusive."
Local authorities and their partners
who want advice on any aspect of producing a local play strategy
can call the Play England advice line on 020 7843 6300.
(29.03.06 - 04.04.06, Children Now)
Ministers are to spend £250 million over two years creating
a cadre of highly trained graduate-level 'early years professionals',
to boost learning for young children. Private and voluntary
nurseries which agree to cap fees to parents at £175 a week
will be able to apply for up to £16,000 to attract graduates
and train staff.
The government wants an early years professional in every
children's centre by 2010, and every full daycare centre by
2015. The requirements for early years professional status
will be published in June. Existing teachers will be eligible
to apply. The cash will also be used to develop training routes,
cover the costs of fees and supply cover for those training,
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