“Can you do it for me?” »

While the Special Commission on the impacts of screens on young people is underway, The Press surveyed around ten teachers, professionals and employees of elementary schools in the province to see how young people have changed over the years.

To allow them to recount real-life cases, we agreed to grant them anonymity. We also spoke with experts and professional associations, whose observations confirm the stories from the field.

The findings are alarming.

This year in Sylvie*’s first cycle class, the children were not able to identify a koala in a picture. They also mixed a tiger and a lion. A phenomenon that she did not see a few years ago, before screens, when the consumption of books was more present in homes.

In the first year, says the teacher with 30 years of experience, only 20% of students are able to peel a banana. Sharpening a pencil is also difficult. “We were forced to choose large triangular pencils because the students were no longer able to handle regular pencils. »

Teachers must show children how to “take the hood of their hoodie out of their coat,” put on their mittens, zip up or tie their shoes.

“We hear teachers report that children do not master certain activities of daily life when they arrive at school,” confirms Noémi Cantin, professor responsible for the school-based professional skills development program in the occupational therapy department of the University of Quebec at Trois-Rivières (UQTR). However, she specifies that the phenomenon has not been the subject of long-term studies and that it is difficult to measure.

Mr. Ouellet reports children who try to “swipe” the pages of a book like on an electronic tablet because they have not been exposed to reading. A primary school principal also told her that some children live in a parallel world and are so dissociated from reality that she has to tell them that she is speaking to them, and not to their virtual video game character, when she speaks to them.

“They are between two worlds,” says Carl Ouellet.

The Quebec Association of School Management Personnel (AQPDE) submitted a brief in September to the special commission which studies the effects of screens on the health and well-being of young people, according to which Quebec children have difficulty write, express themselves and socialize and have poorer fine motor skills.

President of the Federation of Parents’ Committees of Quebec, Mélanie Laviolette notices changes in today’s children and questions the cause.

Julie*, a kindergarten teacher, observes all this in her school in Greater Montreal. Children cannot put on their shoes or tie their coats. “When I tell them to try, they tell me: I’m not capable. Some people throw tantrums at me when I insist they try on or because I don’t dress them. »

“They no longer have any autonomy,” laments his colleague Luce*, a first-year teacher in Montérégie. For example, some students are no longer able to cut following the lines. Many people have fits at the slightest annoyance. They throw things. Hit the others.

In kindergarten, some teachers have to show students “how to go up and down stairs,” she adds.

“They are not capable of DIY. They have difficulty sitting still in class because they don’t move around enough. They lack tone and muscular strength. They are more violent in their actions and their words,” says Catherine*, a specialist primary school teacher. She adds that “many children are not potty trained” at 4-year-old kindergarten, and sometimes even at 5 years old.

Marie-Ève*, a teacher in a school in Estrie, also notes that children start preschool with training pants. And not just those with special needs. So much so that at his school, someone was hired to change the children’s diapers three or four times a day. The position is called a Disabled Child Attendant. “But they’re not necessarily disabled,” she says.

This lack of autonomy can last for years.

Geneviève* teaches fourth year in a very privileged environment. Even at this level, she regularly has to manage the sneakers of her 9-year-old students, many of whom still cannot lace up correctly.

The teacher also deplores a lack of organization among several children. You have to say everything again and again: put your pencils here, your soft notebooks here, your hard notebooks there. “It’s not everyone, but about two-thirds are poorly organized. They don’t know how to manage anything anymore. I even show them how to place things on their desks. I have to check their lockers. There are some who are not able to pick up their lunch box. »

Same decline in terms of social relations. The teacher often needs to put into perspective the seriousness of certain trivial events, perceived as disasters by the children… and their parents. She gives the example of a student panicking because he lost his pencil, and of an adult who sends a letter demanding intervention because his child “was stepped on” by a friend.

“We are overwhelmed in the teaching of subjects because we are busy teaching living together. At the beginning of the year, I pretty much just do that,” she says.

“There is a loss of teaching time,” confirms Carl Ouellet, of AQPDE. Teachers are very involved in basic management. You need to take more time for that. »

* Fictitious first names