Talk to children instead of a mobile phone and ditch exams, urges author

Mr Pullman said he believes the best way to improve youngsters’ language skills is not through learning lists of words but with nursery rhymes, games and conversation before they start school.

A study published earlier this year suggested that children may be at risk of under-performing in the classroom if they have a limited vocabulary.

Mr Pullman, creator of the His Dark Materials series of books, said children loved being included in conversations.

“It fills me with despair when I see somebody pushing a pushchair along with a child in it and the parents walking along behind them talking into a mobile phone,” he said.

He also accused the Government of having an exams “fetish” which, he said, was “ruining” children’s lives.

“They seem to think the function of a storybook or a poem is to provide exercises for grammar and it’s not. The function is to delight, to enchant, to beguile.”

Tests such as SATs should be ditched in favour of teachers and children reading for pleasure, he argued.

He want on to say it was important that children were taught about nature, in order to be made aware of the damage being caused to the environment.