Alarming numbers of children are starting school with unidentified language problems, a communication charity has claimed.
The charity, I CAN, says more than half of children with language disorders are missed. It adds that far too many struggle to talk.
Jean Gross: Shocked that schools are failing to identify so many children with language problems
Language problems underestimated
The charity is reacting to the findings by launching a review. It will look at why official figures underestimate language problems in children.
The Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists will work alongside the charity during the inquiry.
In May 2016, University College London conducted its own research on the issue. It found that around two children in every Year One class, or 7.6 per cent, experience a clinically significant language disorder.
Dramatically different data
But Department for Education (DfE) data from the same year was dramatically different. It reported that only 3 per cent of children in Year One had language needs, less than half the rate that University College London recorded.
Jean Gross, the former Government communication champion for children, is to chair the I CAN review.
The investigation is titled Bercow: Ten Years On. As the name suggests, it is a follow-up review to a report that House of Commons speaker John Bercow conducted. Bercow’s 2008 report was a landmark document about provision for children with language difficulties.
“It’s shocking”
Gross said: ‘‘It’s shocking that almost ten years after John Bercow’s report so many children are not being identified in schools when good language and communication skills are so vital for learning.”
To kick-start the review, I CAN and the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists are inviting people and organisations to make written submissions. Those submissions should share the writers’ experiences of support for children with communication problems.
Bercow: Ten Years On will include recommendations for change. Its publication date will be early in 2018.
Bercow’s original report concluded that children with untreated speech problems faced a bleak future. They risked unemployment, mental health problems and involvement in crime.
We asked the DfE to comment, but they did not respond.
Published: 25 February 2017
