Focus on children’s needs

WE already know children in schools in deprived areas of Scotland achieve far poorer results in exams such as highers than those in affluent areas.

it is also the case that children in deprived areas have a far greater incidence of ‘development’ problems, whether related to speech or social skills or behaviour. These things are not unconnected.

Educational progress depends on being able to articulate problems and solutions and on interaction with others. Those unable to behave in a disciplined manner are unlikely to apply themselves to learning, and that application needs to be acquired from the earliest years.

it seems that ‘looked after’ children are twice as likely to have developmental problems as those not brought up in local authority care.

Children with attentive parents who work at their social skills, behaviour and speech, fare better at school than those with parents who cannot or will not attend to these matters.

That is not a surprise. it also seems, however, poor parenting is better than no parenting.

The solution to this is not to have the First Minister as self-styled ‘chief mammy’ of the nation but to ensure every child has the attention they need.

This would involve two problems: first, as always, money. But money spent on developing children into achievers and responsible citizens would be repaid in later years, with fewer offenders and fewer people in need of support in adulthood.

Second, the problem of inadequate parenting implies a need for intervention in families with problems.

Whether people worry about the ‘nanny state’ or authoritarian intrusion, this is a nettle that needs to be grasped. until it is, there will be no solution to the poor development that currently blights some children in deprived areas of Scotland.

JILL StEPHENSON, Edinburgh.