Send mums and dads 'good parenting' texts, says advisor Parents are not doing a bad job, but often they need the information to do better. Many did not know, for instance, that having the television on all day hampered a young child's talking ability, she said. "If you are a child under two and the television is on all day long in the background, research does show that will have a negative effect on their language development," she said. They can't pay attention to their mum or dad talking as well. While that might seem obvious to many, Gross said speech and language therapists had told her that "parents don't know this." Another idea is to send parents texts linked to their child's age, telling them what to expect from their offspring in terms of communication skills. She said: "Imagine that parents could sign up when they are pregnant to a service called 'Your amazing baby', and get regular tests sent to their smartphones. For example, one text might say 'Did you know that even in the first few months after birth, your baby can imitate you?'  In this example, they would then be prompted to open a link to a page on YouTube, or some other website, showing a very young baby imitating a father sticking his tongue out. Research showed few parents realised the importance of talking to their babies in the first three months, she added. She said the messages must be informative and fun, for anything that lectured parents "would just put them off." However, she thought direct interventions were sometimes necessary, even if they extended the state's reach into the private sphere. "Governments of all persuasions are afraid of being seen to interfere in family life and being seen as the nanny state," she noted. Such a text service must be voluntary, she emphasised, and could also include advice on other aspects of parenthood such as health, sleep, food and toilet training. Gross, made a Commander of the British Empire in the New Year's Honours List for her services to education, said children had communication problems for two reasons: either there was an underlying biological cause, or there were "social factors" at play. She said some of the 58 per cent rise could be accounted for by better identification of children with problems by nurseries, schools and doctors. However, she thought increasing numbers of children had poor language development for social reasons. Some argue new technologies like the internet and smartphones undermine the time mothers and fathers spend talking to their babies, while others blame the rise of "cash rich, time poor" parents. "Whatever it is, we know what works: spending time face-to-face on the floor with them," she said. Once a child was identified as having communication problems, she said too many parents "fall down the cracks" in a system where it was unclear whether the NHS or the local authority was responsible for speech therapy. "There is an absolute lack of clarity about which agency is responsible for it," she said. In December Gross left two years in post as communication champion, a role funded jointly by the Department for Education and the Department of Health.