I share John Harris’s concern (Opinion, 3 March) over Kindred2’s new study about an increase in the number of children starting school who are not “school-ready”, which reported that 28% of children in reception year “incorrectly use books (swiping or tapping as if using an electronic device)”. May I suggest another reason why young children now have difficulty learning to read? Many appear to have little verbal interaction with the adults in their life.
In public I often see a parent with child in pushchair, the parent completely engaged on their mobile phone while the child, given a tablet to keep them quiet, taps and swipes distractedly as the screen changes.
In contrast, in a pre-digital age children in prams and pushchairs sat facing their parent as they walked along, able to engage in a lively exchange, the child cooing and gooing in conversation and in so doing developing muscularity in the speech organs.
Aged 81, I am one of a dying species: a speech teacher. Over the years, I have seen fashions in speech change from the elocution of queen’s English, through “estuary” to the more recent embrace of regional accents. One thing has remained the same: the necessity of speaking clearly and fluently in order to communicate effectively.
It has been my privilege and delight to volunteer in local schools since the 1970s, most recently as a trustee of a multi-academy trust; I was asked to help the reception class of a local primary school where learning to read was a major problem for some pupils, because they couldn’t form the sounds of our language. They lacked basic verbal dexterity, having little tongue and lip muscularity.
A group was chosen to join me in the garden at lunch break, where we had great fun learning to stand up straight, fill our lungs with air and play with language sounds. In no time at all we were Humpty Dumpty’s soldiers, marching to “What a to-do to die today at a minute or two to two, A thing extremely hard to say and harder still to do,” and so on. Dubbed “the poetry group” by the other children, it became the “go to” activity, as others joined in.
When children can speak, they can learn to read, so access to books becomes a joy. We all have a role to play to ensure this is so.
Janice White
East Bridgford, Nottinghamshire
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