Inside Salisbury: Language skills for children from a disadvantaged background more likely to suffer
BBC Tiny Happy People and Wiltshire Council campaign
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By Annette J Beveridge
Children from a disadvantaged background can be 18 months behind their peers in language development by age three.
Wiltshire Council, along with BBC Tiny Happy People, have launched an early language development campaign encouraging parents to play and talk to their children each day. The aim is to share helpful advice and support to boost early language development up to the age of five, and includes five simple actions.
Parents should:
Tune into their child and follow their lead
Chat with them throughout the day
Read books, songs and rhymes to them
Copy their sounds and words, but add a bit more
Start talking to them before they are born
Developing language skills is important for a child’s well-being and helps them to manage emotions and build relationships. It also helps with reading and writing. All of these influence education, mental health and employment eventually.
Director of Public Health for Wiltshire, Kate Blackburn, said: “Communication is a fundamental life skill for children and if we get it right early on and support families with initiatives like Wiltshire Talk and Play Everyday and BBC Tiny Happy People, then we can really make a difference to the futures of our children now and when they reach adulthood.
“This campaign is a call to action for everyone in Wiltshire because supporting children’s communication is everyone’s business.”
Read more: Success story for Salisbury charity
Although children with a disadvantaged background can be affected more, in Wiltshire, 69% of young children achieve a good level of development at the end of reception compared to 68% nationally, according to 2023-24 figures.
There are still gaps between children in the most and least deprived areas. Nationally, up to 50% of children in some areas start school with Speech, Language, and Communication (SLC) needs.
This can have a long-lasting impact.
Children with poor language skills at age five are five times more likely to struggle with reading in adulthood.
Children are three times more likely to experience mental health issues later in life.
The risk of unemployment doubles by age 34.
The Wiltshire Talk and Play Every Day campaign aims to close these gaps by embedding a consistent, county-wide approach.
Families can find BBC Tiny Happy People resources across Wiltshire, including Family Hubs, Maternity Services, libraries, leisure centres and online.
Staff working with pregnant families and children under five will be promoting BBC Tiny Happy People’s free resources, which include videos, tips, and activity ideas. While parents and carers play a key role, this is also a whole-community effort as every adult interaction matters.
