Pushchairs 'hinder baby talk'

The National Literacy Trust says buggies face the wrong way

Forward-facing pushchairs are failing to engage parents and their children in conversation, a literacy charity says.

The National Literacy Trust claims parents and carers would talk more to babies and toddlers if they had access to buggies where the child faces them.

In a survey of 800 parents and carers, the charity found 88% felt they would chat more if their child faced them.

The trust believes parent-facing buggies can help address language delays in pre-school children.

My child sometimes doesn't realise that we are with Respondent to National Literacy Trust online survey

The NLT's campaign "Talk to your baby" was launched in 2003 in response to concerns among head teachers that many children were starting school without basic conversational skills.

In a joint survey with the National Association of Head Teachers in 2001, 75% of heads of nurseries and schools admitting three year olds were concerned about a decline in children's language competence at entry.

'Missed opportunity'

The NLT believes parent-facing pushchairs can help address this problem by increasing eye contact and chatter between toddler and carer.

"Children spend quite a lot of time in their buggies," Talk to your baby manager Liz Attenborough told the BBC News website.

"And it's a missed opportunity to have face-to-face communication time."

One respondent to the trust's online survey said: "My child sometimes doesn't realise that we are with him until we either stop and run around the front or tip him backwards just to say hello.

"My husband has taken to walking backwards in front of the buggy just so our son can see us."

While parent-facing buggies are available on the market, the NLT says they tend to be much more expensive than traditional pushchairs.

"Talk To Your Baby is campaigning for change and calling on the childcare equipment supplies market to think creatively about how to meet demand for affordable, sociable pusher-facing buggies," said manager Liz Attenborough.

Bird's eye view

But Maclaren, one of the leading pushchair manufacturers, said while parent-facing buggies were reassuring for newborn babies, older children needed to be stimulated by the world around them.

"For children of six months and above (which the majority of our buggies are targeted at currently), there are other considerations," the company said in a statement.

"By then they are usually sitting up and are highly inquisitive, insisting on looking at where they are going and interacting with the surroundings that are approaching them rather than facing backwards towards their parents."

Parents were more likely to nurture a child's verbal skills when they spent "quality time sitting down with a child in a calm environment, without any external distractions", the company added.