A charity says it wants to help families struggling with toilet training ahead of September.

One in four children are due to start school in September without being toilet trained, a charity has said.

A report by early years charity Kindred found pupils are losing, on average, a third of their learning time each day due to teachers diverting away from teaching and towards supporting children who are not school-ready.

Bristol charity ERIC - the children’s bladder and bowel organisation - has now set up an “emergency intervention” campaign for those starting school next month.

ERIC CEO Juliette Rayner said that, while the problem had been a “growing issue” recently, “this year seems to be particularly bad”.

  • wewbullEnglish
    341·
    1 month ago

    If it’s becoming the norm, then yes it needs calling out. This isnt about the kid that isn’t developing at the same rate because of their own unique challenges.

    I suspect this has more to do with lockdown and lack of socialising in early years, so it’s been less of an issue if a kid isn’t toilet trained. That plus first time parents not having other children around as much to have reference development rates.

    • HumanPenguinEnglish
      26·
      1 month ago

      I’d add the guess. First time parents being older or more to the point the reasons they wait.

      Part of the desire to leave child raising until people are more fiscally secure. (hardly something we can blame younger couples for over the 2020s). Will be that the cost of nappies was often a huge motivator to young, less stable couples in the past. Now it hardly seems like the big cost compared to housing etc nowadays. Back in the 90s when I was at that point. Rent etc seemed high as an expense. But compared to income today, it really represented a much smaller % of every day costs. So other things were more influential.

      Looking on Amazon. Nappies actually seem cheaper inflation adjusted then in the 90s.