Put those phones away.

richiepurgas

Friend of mine teaches infants and is in a daily rage.

Why ? She sees kids being picked up each day by parents or minders. She watches as they walk away, some a short distance to a car, others to a bus-stop nearby or all the way home.
She tells me it is heartbreaking to watch as many of the adults play away with their phones and practically ignore the kids. Yet, this is the one time of day when the children are bursting to talk having undergone a completely new experience in their lives. Instead of being ignored, they should be encouraged and quizzed in a creative way that would greatly benefit them. My friend is adamant that the adults behaviour will have long-term effects on the infants, where not being encouraged to share their thoughts will spill over into other aspects of their lives as they grow older and encounter all sorts of experiences, good and bad.

Well, is my friend right to be upset ?

Moonbeam

We used to all sit at the table for dinner and go around every body and ask "what did you do today?"
It will only have a long term effect if they are being ignored all the time.

wirelessdude01

Tell your friend to stop worrying as her job is done once she hands them over at the gate. You won't tell an adult/parent what to do with their children.

byhookorbycrook

It seems our jobs don't end at the gate ,according to this judge:
"Judge O’Shea told Davitt and O Cearra that when they went out they were ambassadors for their schools and “in this regard they had let their profession and more importantly themselves down in a most egregious way”.


http://www.thejournal.ie/brawl-mcgowans-pub-4247297-Sep2018/

And seeing as we must tackle cyberbullying that takes place outside of school, it seems that the DESalso thinks we are not finished with our duty of once the children go home.

But to answer the OP, yes , it is having repercussions- in the area of receptive and expressive language, abilty to sustain concentration , gross and fine motor skills. Not only are some parents choosing to ignore chances to chat but worse again, using phones/tablets as ways to keep a child occupied.

Bells21

It's also having an impact on children's language levels. The amount of children who don't have basic vocabulary because they're not spoken to or exposed to language. I was reading through Goldilocks the other day and asked what was Goldilocks eating the porridge from. The answer I got was a bucket. Last year when looking at the farm I was expecting to have to teach the names of baby animals but I had to teach the basic farm animal names first.
I remember when we were going somewhere, by foot or in car, my parents pointing out lots of objects.
I'm not tarring all parents with the one brush but there is definitely an impact on children's language capabilities.