Babies are being turned into ‘mini adults’ with busy schedules of singing, yoga, gym, swimming and salsa classes, childcare experts claim.

英国育儿专家称，宝宝们由于日程安排太满，正被变成“小大人”。他们整日都要忙于学习唱歌、瑜伽、体操、游泳、和萨尔萨舞等技能。

They say children are forced to grow up too soon due to the commercialisation of childhood and targets set by the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) – or ‘nappy curriculum’ – in schools.

Their concerns are raised in a new book, Too Much, Too Soon?, due to be submitted to the Department for Education’s consultation¹ on the EYFS, which ends on Friday.

One of the book’s authors, infant massage² instructor³ Sylvie Hétu, says: ‘Babies now have “schedules” that are as important as those of adults. It is quite common that babies have a class every day.

'Baby music, baby yoga, baby gym, baby singing, baby salsa, baby language, baby Einstein, and baby swim classes are all very common nowadays.’

Many baby classes – such as salsa and yoga – require mothers to perform the activity, but provide an opportunity for ‘bonding’.

However, Miss Hétu says infants should be protected from ‘over-stimulation’ and need the ‘calm presence of their parents’ and ‘day-to-day house sounds’.

She also calls for a revival⁴ in lullabies（摇篮曲） , saying a generation of parents do not ‘intuitively（直观地） sing’ to their babies.

The book, edited by Dr Richard House of the Open EYE campaign group, concludes: ‘The evidence is overwhelming that “too much, too soon” is deeply damaging both to individual children and to our culture.

'Educators, parents and policy-makers have a grave responsibility to arrest and reverse the “adultification” of children and childhood in whatever ways they can.’