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Forget table manners for once
Parents should spend more time talking to their children during traditional family meals to help them learn vital communication skills, a major government report recommended yesterday.
- Evening Standard
- Published: 00:04 July 10, 2008
- Image Credit: Supplied picture
- A new government report says mealtime conversations are not lost on children.
London: Parents should spend more time talking to their children during traditional family meals to help them learn vital communication skills, a major government report recommended yesterday.
Children who sit for hours in front of the television or playing computer games will not learn to speak or listen properly and put their education at risk, the study warns.
John Bercow, the Conservative MP who led the independent government review, warned parents that they were wrong to assume all babies and toddlers would talk "when they are ready". Children who lacked good communication skills struggled to make friends and could fall behind in class, he said. "Communication is a life skill that has to be taught, honed and nurtured. It is not something that will just happen."
The MP for Buckingham, who Gordon Brown invited to take charge of the review, stressed he was not backing a "nanny state" solution. But he said the government should advise parents that regular conversations over the dinner table or on family trips could help children develop. "It is a question of balance," he said.
"If a child just sits in front of the television or a computer game for hours and doesn't have the benefit of shared family experiences, and doesn't have those conversations, that is a missed opportunity."
By the age of four, children from the poorest homes will have heard just 13 million words spoken in their lives, while those from more affluent families will have heard 45 million words, according to government research.
Bercow suggested "hundreds of thousands" of children in England suffer some difficulty with speaking skills, while more than 45,000 experience "severe" or "significant" problems.
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