Literacy news

'One in six' children have difficulty learning to talk

1 Jan 2010

A YouGov online survey of 1,015 parents conducted for England's first "Communication Champion" Jean Gross, found some three-year-olds were unable to say a single word and that only half of children with speech problems received expert help.

Six out of 10 people questioned for the survey said the ability to talk, listen and understand was the most important skill for children to develop in the early years. This priority came ahead of the ability to interact with others (26%), reading skills (11%), numeracy skills (2%) and writing skills (1%).

Ms Gross said the proportion of children with problems is "high" and that getting help early was essential. "Our ability to communicate is fundamental and underpins everything else. Learning to talk is one of the most important skills a child can master in the 21st Century," she said.

The proportion of children who have difficulty learning to talk and understand speech is high, particularly among boys. It is essential that all children get the help they need from skilled professionals as early as possible.

In another interview with the Daily Mail on January 1 2010, Jean Gross also described how middle-class children are struggling to learn how to talk because working parents are unable to offer them the quality time which is crucial to their speech development.

She also warned that parents should avoid daycare for under-twos unless it has well-trained staff who offer plenty of one-to-one attention with a focus on promoting language development instead of just concentrating on feeding and nappy-changing.

Jean Gross also claimed that a further impediment to language development was the trend for youngsters to spend too much time in front of ‘machines’ such as TVs and computers instead of interacting with adults. She described how “our brains have not evolved to learn from machines – babies are instead primed to respond to a face, and to recognise their parents’ faces”.

She concluded that I still think parents staying home and looking after their own children is ideal, (in order to) … give a child that one-to-one intense development of language. But she recognised that many mothers could not afford to stay at home to do this because of hefty mortgages and the modern-day cost of raising a family.

(Daily Mail and BBC News, 1 and 4 January 2010)

Tags: Children, Early Years, Families, Schools & teaching, Talk To Your Baby, Young People

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