Kids' computers are killing conversation

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Expensive computer games and educational toys are killing the art of conversation in middle-class homes, a government adviser warned today.

Alan Wells, director of the Basic Skills Agency, said some parents were "buying themselves out" of having to talk to their children.

The result, he said, was a worrying increase in the number of children arriving at school lacking communication skills crucial to effective learning.

A survey of more than 700 primary schools in Wales showed the majority of head teachers believed young children's talking and listening skills had declined in the past five years.

More than half the heads said they saw fewer new pupils who could speak clearly and be understood, recite rhymes or songs, respond to instructions, listen to others and talk about their own experiences.

Mr Wells said the trend was not only apparent in less welloff homes since "affluent parents sometimes buy themselves out of having to talk to their children by buying them expensive games which don't involve them in playing with their children".

He told of one school where the head told him of a 10-yearold pupil "who had his own room, his own phone and his own computer".

Mr Wells said the most difficult parents to reach were those who had poor experience themselves of education.

But he also blamed successive governments for placing too much emphasis on what happened in the classroom so it was "not surprising if parents believe it and expect teachers to do it all."

 

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