Children signed up to six pre-school classes a week

Its survey of 1,000 UK parents found that one in five admit to spending more than £600 a year on extracurricular activities including French, swimming, yoga and art, with three-quarters saying that giving their children a head start was really important when choosing activities.

Co-founder of Talking Tots, Lisa Houghton, said, 'It's absolutely essential to give young children "downtime", where they can just play and spend time with family and friends. You might not think they're learning anything, but independent play gives children the chance to practise conversation and social skills, develop imaginative play and create their own entertainment.'

Sarah Owen, founder and managing director of Pyjama Drama, a pre-school activity group for two- to five-year-olds, said, 'While there is no doubt that classes can have huge social benefits for the parent and the child, I would consider six classes excessive. Parents put too much pressure on themselves to give their child the best of everything and when they see other parents taking their children to classes and activities, they feel a further pressure to do the same.'