BARROW nurseries have welcomed a report which found pre-school education was the most important time for child development.

Save the Children has identified learning at nursery as much more critical to long-term education growth than previously thought , advising nurseries to employ qualified early years teachers and warning a lack of high quality provision can result in "decades" of developmental delay.

Best practice

Happy Tots Day Nursery in Abbey Road, Barrow, received an "outstanding" rating by Ofsted in 2014 and its innovative techniques to develop language and speech skills were praised.

Angela Cernaghan, key worker at the nursery, said staff always made sure there was plenty of opportunity for "brain time" as the Save the Children report suggests.

She said: "It's got to be fun. They have to engage in it. Even when they might be singing, there's a lot of thought behind it and learning.

"They love 'Jolly Phonics'. We feel speech should be incorporated in everyday play.

"The 'Play-doh Gym' develops their motor skills. If the children don't have that strength in the muscles they find it difficult to use their finger muscles and to write."

Last year almost 130,000 children in England were falling behind with language abilities before they reached school, Save The Children said. This equates to six children in every reception class.

Bespoke learning

Alison Peel, deputy manager at Bright Horizons Barrow Day Nursery, agreed early years education was vital for long-term growth, pointing towards their efforts to encourage children to be curious about the world.

She said: "We have developed bespoke programmes for learning, which have been carefully created to support each child throughout their early learning journey, helping to prepare them with the confidence, skills and abilities to succeed at school and beyond.

"We commission an annual Starting School, Starting Strong survey, which asks parents and teachers of school age children who previously attended a Bright Horizons nursery how prepared they felt the children were when starting school.

"Results highlighted that over 90 per cent of teachers believed that leavers from Bright Horizons started school with the confidence and skills to speak in a group and to share information and feelings."

Missed opportunities

The Save the Children research found toddler's brains were like sponges and their ability to learn was faster than at any other time in their lives.

Gareth Jenkins, director of UK at Save the Children, said: "We've got to challenge the misconception that learning can wait for school, as, if a child starts their first day at school behind, they tend to stay behind."

Five learning activities to try with your toddler

Research by Save the Children found more than half of parents do not think they have enough help and advice to understand their child's early learning.

Also, of the 1,000 parents from England surveyed, 47 per cent said they hoped their child would know 100 words by their third birthday - but this is only half of the recommended amount.

Activities to try with your toddler
Here are five simple learning activities to try with your child.
Colours
An older toddler will start to learn about differentiating colours so painting and mixing colours is ideal to help them identify which ones are which. One easy activity to try at home is sorting items like toys and pencils into colour groups in designated parts of a room or desk. This could be a great way to tidy up after playtime!
Shapes
Identifying shapes is another skill toddlers should be typically developing at this age so jigsaws and puzzles are a great way to facilitate this. One simple method to try this is by using velcro craft sticks (if you don't have any, use lollisticks or pencils) to move and create the outlines of different shapes.
Counting
Recognising numbers and counting are key skills a toddler should be learning. Simply counting at every given opportunity with child is a great way to reaffirm this - it's as easy as counting the number of steps when going upstairs or giving them a pad and paper and asking them to tally how many of a object there is around the house like plates or forks. 
Letters
By the age of two your child will be recognising the letters that make up their name so displaying these letters around the home is a good idea. Talk about other words which start with the same letter so for Diana it could be dog, dinner and dress.
Textures
Devote some time to explain different textures to your child by filling a bag with lots of different objects such as sandpaper, cotton balls and wooden utensils. This activity will put words to different feelings and sensations and also develops sensory skills.