News
The National Literacy Trust's Talk To Your Baby campaign
1 Nov 2003
The National Literacy Trust, created to help build a literate nation, celebrates its tenth anniversary this year. The work of the Trust has included running the National Year of Reading on behalf of the government; establishing Reading Is Fundamental, UK, a project to encourage book ownership and reading for pleasure amongst children; setting up Reading The Game, using the power of football to make links with role models and schemes for reading; organising conferences and training courses and establishing other activities, such as the creation of the respected and much used literacy website www.literacytrust.org.uk
However all the good things happening with school children and adults would be so much more fruitful if everybody had been able to have the benefit of a language-rich start in their home in their earliest years. Anecdotal evidence, supported by a Trust survey of headteachers, suggests that more children are arriving into nursery education at three without the language skills appropriate for their age. Vocabulary appears less well developed than five years ago, and there is a reduced capacity to listen. Whatever the cause, it is clear that at present many children's opportunity to achieve their potential is hampered by insufficient linguistic experience long before they enter the formal education system.
So this year the Trust started on a development year, financially supported by the Sure Start Unit at the Department for Education and Skills, for a Talk To Your Baby campaign. We have been talking and listening to organisations key to this area, so that we can learn from people active in the field and build new connections to find just how the campaign can make a difference. Foremost among the people we have been speaking to are of course speech and language therapists, and RCSLT CEO and professional director Kamini Gadhok has joined our steering group.
In June and July we ran a series of consultation groups around England, with SLTs well represented amongst the participants. We were impressed to hear of the preventative strategies adopted by SLTs working in Sure Start areas, and to hear such positive support for the campaign's ideas from everyone involved in early years work. The meetings heard of a wide range of current projects in each area, and many new alliances were made among the participants. We discussed the barriers for parents and carers to engage in active play and communication with their babies. The meetings highlighted the shock and isolation of the reality of a baby in the home and the need for clear signposting to peer and professional support.
There was much discussion about ways the campaign can raise awareness of the value of talking to young children, and the need for modelling good practice. But all those present acknowledged that there needs to be a culture shift, so that all new parents and childcare staff realise both the pleasure and the value of engaging the youngest children in eye contact, in talking and singing, in listening and enjoying their child's early attempts at communication.
We talked about television and dummies, we discussed baby massage and noise in the home and we wondered why other countries might think it strange that we were even discussing this issue as a problem. We talked most particularly about how we might empower parents as their child's first teacher, to make them feel confident in their important role. We want parents to know that talking needs to be learnt, just like walking, and it's as important to nourish the mind as it is to provide nourishing food.
We are negotiating for funding to continue the campaign, as we believe Talk To Your Baby will make a significant contribution. It is not going to happen overnight, but with support from a wide range of partners - in the health service, in the agencies that touch people's lives, and especially in the general media - we believe that this vital work will be done.
As the dialogue continues, our website grows, and the long-term campaign to make changes begins in earnest. All ideas and suggestions are very welcome.
(RCSLT Bulletin November 2003)
