Babies 'are being turned into mini adults' with busy schedules too soon
Babies are being turned into mini adults with busy schedules of singing, yoga, gym, swimming and salsa classes, childcare experts claim.
They say children are forced to grow up too soon due to the commercialisation of childhood and targets set by the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) or nappy curriculum in schools.
Their concerns are raised in a new book, Too Much, Too Soon?, due to be submitted to the Department for Educations consultation on the EYFS, which ends on Friday.
Best years of their lives: But experts warn that today's young children have hectic schedules (File photo)
The consultation follows a pledge by the Coalition to scale back the compulsory EYFS, which requires youngsters to hit 117 targets.
One of the books authors, infant massage instructor Sylvie Htu, says: Babies now have schedules that are as important as those of adults. It is quite common that babies have a class every day.
Baby music, baby yoga, baby gym, baby singing, baby salsa, baby language, baby Einstein, baby sings and baby swim classes are all very common nowadays.
Many baby classes such as salsa and yoga require mothers to perform the activity, but provide an opportunity for bonding.
However, Miss Htu says infants should be protected from over-stimulation an! d need t he calm presence of their parents and day-to-day house sounds.
She also calls for a revival in lullabies, saying a generation of parents do not intuitively sing to their babies.
The book, edited by Dr Richard House of the Open EYE campaign group, concludes: The evidence is overwhelming that too much, too soon is deeply damaging both to individual children and to our culture.
Educators, parents and policy-makers have a grave responsibility to arrest and reverse the adultification of children and childhood in whatever ways they can.
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