October 7th, 2007 Walkie Talkie buggies Posted by Melitsa in Articles, Education, Sites to visit

Which way does your stroller/buggy face?

This is a two part series on talk.

I. Walkie talkie buggies.

II. Walkie talkie parenting.

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My two biggest problems with my stroller

1. The trouble with a forward facing stroller/buggy is that the sun always gets on them, whatever you do. I used a travel system with the carseat attached to the stroller. So I could cover him up in the carseat but no matter what I bought never could get the coverage and maneuver through the crowds.

2. The car seat faced me but as soon as he’d grown out of that baby carseat- I had chubby long babies so that was pretty quickly; they were facing the way we were going. I talked to the back of their heads. I never knew if they were sleeping or looking in the right direction so had to stop the stroller to look.

An interesting ongoing discussion is “Can modern stollers/buggies hinder speech?”

With the kids facing out for the crucial language acquisition stage do we talk less to them since we can’t see them and does this impact their language learning?

I think , Yes and yes.

After stopping many a time to find the little guy had dozed off it was discouraging. Other times he was keenly looking and pointing at something but I couldn’t quite tell where? what? or even why?

I remember a friend avidly looking for an affordable stroller that would fit twins that faced her so she could talk to them. In 2002, there were hardly any.

She was adamant about the need to see and talk to her babies and then toddlers. To give them eye contact and to stimulate them.

Wise woman.

“During 2005 and 2006 Talk To Your Baby has been campaigning widely on this issue, to try and encourage buggy manufacturers to produce affordable pusher-facing buggies that would be accessible to all parents and carers.”

There have been a series of news reports about how children’s language is deteriorating, as measured by the expectations of schools when they enter.There are many views of how and why this is happening.

• The widely held view that children brought up on a diet of TV for extended periods of time lack the communication skills needed to function well in school.

• The fact that poor parenting skills lead to poor behavioral and verbal skills of children starting school with many unable to settle and not ready to learn is not disputed.
• They don’t sit still; they can’t follow instructions; they don’t behave properly. Parents are blamed for not getting their children ready for school with the increasing demands put on them and those in single parent homes feel the finger pointing the worse.

Dorit Braun of parent support charity Parentline Plus feels schools and parents need to form partnerships and assigning blame doesn’t help but in fact alienates parents.”If you’re working very hard and you’re tired, and your child is tired and fractious, it’s not surprising that you might stick them in front of the TV while you prepare supper, or prepare lunch.”

She called on schools to do more to steer parents in the right direction, and “communicate clearly with parents about what would be helpful”.

“We need to be thinking more about how to relieve some of the stresses on parents, so they can feel a bit more in control of their time, and therefore enjoy the time they spend with their children,” she said.

Find some practical ideas in part II. Walkie talkie parenting.

If you can’t wait to find out more, try the literacy trust ‘Talk to your baby” campaign

***Share your thoughts. Do you think the language and speech concerns are justified or overstated?**

Which way does/did your stroller/buggy face?

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