Screen time blamed for rise in children biting in nurseries

Three in five nursery staff often have to deal with children biting, a survey by daynurseries.co.uk has found.

The survey of nursery staff, which received 1,000 responses, asked ‘do you often have to deal with children biting?’ Sixty-two per cent said yes and 38 per cent said no.

Twenty-seven per cent said that they had seen a rise in the number of children biting in the last five year.

This could be attributed to busy working parents not spending enough time with their children and too much screen time.

A spokesperson at daynurseries.co.uk, called it “extremely worrying” and said: “Our findings resonate with other studies which have found an increase in the number of pre-school children with poor language skills. Too much screen time and the pressures on working parents - which means they are not spending time talking to their children, have been blamed for the rise in children’s problems communicating.

"Family life is so busy but it is vital parents take time to sit and chat with their children and read books to them so they develop good language skills at an early age. Otherwise it is nurseries that are having to pick up the slack."