Talk To Your Baby is a campaign run by the National Literacy Trust to encourage parents and carers to talk more to children from birth to three.

Talking and listening to young children helps them develop good language and communication skills, which enables them to express themselves, listen, learn, read, write and socialise better. It also helps children feel valued, builds their confidence and helps parents and children to bond.

Too many children in the UK are entering nursery and school with inadequate language and communication skills. Some of these children - an average of two in every classroom - will have specific speech or language impairments which will need professional help. Many others, however, may not have had enough opportunities to develop their communication skills as babies and toddlers. They can remain at a disadvantage compared with those who grow up in language-rich homes.

Since our campaign started in January 2003, we have developed our website to provide a one-stop shop for information, advice and downloadable free resources on early language and communication to support early years professionals and inform parents. We have made links with a wide range of organisations and have been working through the national, regional and professional media to highlight the messages in order to reach parents and carers. We are speaking at conferences and writing articles for a variety of websites and publications.

In addition we have raised some very specific issues to campaign on, such as the need for pusher-facing pushchairs and buggies and the need for the topic of language acquisition to be taught in schools.

Our vision is that within 10 years we will have facilitated a positive cultural shift so that all children receive from their parents and carers a stimulating language-rich start to life.

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