A recent report from the early years charity Kindred 2 based on teacher reports, suggests that nearly half of children are not developmentally ready for Reception.
Much of the focus of the report is on self-care skills such as being unable to eat independently, use the toilet, or communicate clearly – but despite teachers reporting significant inadequacy in these skills, nearly nine in ten of the parents interviewed believe their children are ready to start school.
Teachers also identified parents spending more time on electronic devices than being actively engaged with their children, not reading to their children, and children spending less time in nursery during lockdown as being contributory factors. However, a more long term review of the literature suggests that this growing problem may be multifactorial and is not as new as it seems.
In 2014, I was criticised following an article in the Daily Telegraph reporting recommendations I had made advocating the general screening of children’s physical abilities at the time of school entry. These recommendations were based on studies published in 2004 and 2005* which had indicated that in a sample of more than 600 children in mainstream primary schools, nearly half of the children were not 'ready' in terms of their skills at rising five years of age and that there was correlation between less mature physical skills and lower educational performance.
Subsequent studies have indicated a general decline in children’s physical abilities. Some have also pointed to the possibility that in many cases this deficit can be remedied with the introduction of developmental movement programmes into schools.
The recent report published by Kindred 2 points to a combination of social and environmental factors contributing to an increasing decline in children’s developmental readiness for school. These factors are difficult to tackle at all levels, but the introduction of screening and movement programmes into school is something that can potentially benefit all children.
A pilot project (unpublished) carried out in Scotland between 2017 and 2018 found a clear association between child poverty, defined as children in receipt of free school meals, and less mature physical skills. The introduction of two types of movement programme into schools saw a complete closure of the poverty-related gap in terms of children’s physical literacy at the end of the programmes.
Physical literacy supports far more than simply excelling at sports. Physical literacy underpins the ability to sit still, carry out co-ordinated activities such as writing, motor aspects of speech, some of the eye movements needed to support reading and copying, spatial awareness involved in mathematics, reading body language and being able to adapt body language appropriately to social cues.
While many factors influence parental engagement – time, stress, work and money worries, poverty, affluence (too busy to have time or interest) and not knowing 'how'– to name but a few – physical development provides a direct reflection of maturity in the functioning of the central nervous system.
This is one reason why the assessment of children’s physical skills at key stages in development and the introduction of regular sensory-movement programmes into schools can be one practical way of helping to provide a level playing field on which all children can learn.
*Declaration of interest: The writer is also the author of the screening test and intervention programme used in some of the research cited in this article.