Are you listening? The Playtime survey results are in!

We asked toddler groups to hand out ‘Tell us about your family’ questionnaires to families who came along to the groups. We received over 600 questionnaires back, and the responses are very helpful to see how best to support families.

Here’s how the parents responded...

What age are your children?

65% had children from 0-2 and 55% had children aged 2-4, but interestingly, 59% had other children at primary school, and 14% also had children at secondary school. Your toddler group can potentially have an impact on whole families beyond the pre-school years.

What resources are helpful?

Web resources topped the list, but books and DVDs also came fairly high up. Maybe you could find out if the parents and carers would find a small library of resources helpful? 45% felt that a parenting course run by their toddler group would be fairly useful, with 42% saying it would be very useful, so that may be something you want to talk about with the parents in your group.

When it came to current sources of advice, ‘Friends and family’ definitely scored the highest. Toddler groups are one of the best places for meeting up with friends and talking over parenting issues, and this result highlights the essential service that toddler groups provide the local community.

What are the main issues for your family?

Although ‘nutrition and feeding’ topped the list as the single issue most parents wanted information on, the main issues could be grouped into six categories.

1. 39% discipline, behaviour, parenting
2. 27% health, nutrition
3. 12% child development, play
4. 10% education, starting school
5. 7% money, work, childcare
6. 5% other issues eg single parents, adoption

May 2008

The survey gave a fantastic picture of the issues facing families today. A big thank you to everyone who took part. In fact the survey was so helpful, we hope to run it again, so watch this space!

Last Updated 22 January 2009