Toddlers fall behind on basic skills

TODDLERS in Greater Manchester are more likely to have already fallen behind when it comes to basic skills.

Three out of the five areas with the poorest child development outcomes for two and two-and-a half-year-olds in England are in our region.

Latest figures released by Public Health England show Bury, Rochdale and Bolton were among the areas in 2018-19 with the lowest proportion of children at or above the level expected in all five areas of skills development.

This means children in these areas may struggle to do tasks such as talk in complete sentences, throw and catch a ball, draw recognisable people, or name colours.

Bury saw the lowest proportion of children in England reaching the expected standard or above at just 59.1 per cent.

It has also seen the biggest decline nationally, going from 76.7pc of children at or above the expected level in 2017-18.

In both Bolton and Rochdale, 66.4pc of toddlers reached the expected skills level in 2018-19.

As a whole, Greater Manchester areas are struggling to match the national average of 84.1pc.

Only Tameside (93.1pc), Wigan (86.9pc) and Manchester (84.1pc), are above this level.

Tameside saw a big increase in the proportion of children reaching the expected standard last year – up from 60.4pc, which was the second-largest rise in England.

However, there were falls in the proportion of children at the expected child development level in Wigan, Manchester and Oldham.

As of 2015, all children in England became eligible for a Healthy Child Programme development review.

This would occur around their second birthday as a part of the universal health visitor service.

As part of this, they are assessed on the child development outcomes using the Ages and Stages Questionnaire (ASQ-3 TM).

It is primarily used for providing an objective measure of a child’s development and also to identify children who are not developing as expected.

The questionnaire covers the five development areas of communication, gross motor skills, fine motor skills, problem-solving and personal-social skills. Responses are made by parents and each answer has a corresponding score. The scores are then added together with a colour-coded chart showing where the child is in their development.