Many teachers in Britain have expressed concern about the dependency of children on screens. They noted that a part of the children entering school are no longer able to lift themselves up by the railings and have weakened muscles due to excessive screen time spent in front of devices.
The results of the research by teachers across all of Wales and England appeared after local authorities in Wales advised parents to switch to teaching their children to use toilet facilities if they start school and cannot use the toilet properly.
The council directed parents to inform the school staff that the time, overshadowed by the school's collaboration with diaper staff, indicates the time of training and studying. A survey conducted by the research group Savanta for the charitable foundation Kindred on early childhood development indicated that almost half of the teachers in Wales and England noted a decline in children's readiness for school in the past year due to weak motor skills and undeveloped muscles, likely due to excessive screen use.
According to The Guardian, there were also reports about the lag in the use of Americanized words adopted by students who learned them from the internet, among children starting school.
Teachers agreed that limitations during the pandemic played their role, but one of the senior teachers stated in the context of the research: "You can't blame Covid-19 for too long. And I regret it, but much also depends on the parents."
Less than half (44%) of the 1000 parents of preschool-aged children responding to the parallel survey believe that children should be able to correctly use books, turning pages rather than leafing through or pressing, as if it were some electronic device when they start school.
