Childrens Communication skills worsening

The number of children starting school in Jersey with poor communication skills
is rising.

Now government is taking action to reverse the
trend.

The Department for Education, Sport and Culture is sponsoring
training for all early years staff in both the private and States
sectors.

It's thought that one reason for youngsters not being able to
communicate properly is because families tend to stay at home more and spend
less time doing things together out of doors.

Local nursery school and
reception staff are going to be shown how to mend speech and language
difficulties through outdoor activities....
What do you think, are parents failing to teach the basic skills of communication to their children?Have we come to way of thinking, that its the schools job to teach these skills?

I bet their good at playstation games..

And txtng!No wonder they can't spell.

I agree entirely with that, Bug1.
I believe the internet is a wonderful gift for the youngsters of today, giving them instant access to more information than we could have dreamed of in our childhood. Of course, they have to want to learn, using it for trivia like Facebook (even though we have an account linked to our political news site) isn't going to help them much. Unless they are lucky with their circle of friends, they need to look above and beyond their peers to gain full advantage of the new media.
As for text messaging - it's the most destructive element on the English language ever devised. If God had meant us not to have vowels, he would have designed a mouth to not open so wide.