Poverty, the Covid pandemic and activities being replaced with screens are causing an explosion of speech and language issues among children, it has been warned
Poverty, the Covid pandemic and activities being replaced with screens are causing an explosion of speech and language issues among children, it has been warned.
Chief executive of Speech and Language UK Jane Harris has issued a rallying cry to ministers ahead of the release of their long awaited special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) strategy.
She said currently the system is “absolutely failing a huge number of children”, with a fifth of kids struggling in some way with speech and language – a record number.
Nearly half of these children have SEND-related speech challenges, such as a form of neurodivergence or disability.
Speaking to The Mirror, Ms Harris said: “The current situation is more children than ever before are struggling to talk and understand words, and that is really worrying. So we’re now up to one in five children and we know that if they don’t get the right support, they can’t learn subjects in school like English and maths, but they also can’t make friends, and they can’t even use words to understand their own feelings.
READ MORE: Four major pledges in Keir Starmer’s plan to tackle child poverty – what it means for youREAD MORE: Austerity cuts likely caused surge in disability benefit claims, research finds
“They can’t even say to themselves, I’m sad, I’m happy, and they certainly can’t tell anybody else what’s going on. So they end up absolutely isolated and frustrated when, actually, if we gave them the right help, they could have a great time at school, they could make friends, they could learn and they also could then go on to get important jobs in our economy.”
Ms Harris said there are a litany of issues that have caused a spike in preventable issues. Record poverty levels – combined with the Covid pandemic – has seen kids missing out on life experiences with their peers, she said, from going to the park to learning how to share toys with others.
While Ms Harris said an increase in screen time was not alone a cause of problems, replacing real-world experiences with more time on devices was a contributing factor.
“Children are missing out on really important experiences for their development,” she said. “Screens are stopping children going to the park, having a chat with their friends, talking to their parents, etc. We really believe that that’s mostly because parents are really more stressed than ever. They are often working more hours than ever to make the ends meet.
“They don’t have the money to take their kids out to a farm and point at a cow and say that cow goes moo, and teach the kid the term cow, so that’s the real issue. Screens, if anything, are a symptom, they are not a cause of the problem.”
She said speech issues are commonly thought of as an early years problem but that this is a misconception and teens are also suffering. For older kids, such problems impact their ability to make friends or talk about their emotions, which can lead to increased mental health issues.
While more access to speech and language specialists is needed, Ms Harris said improved training for all teachers would help ease the crisis. Currently, she said, teachers get only two hours of speech and language training when they do their initial teacher training. She voiced support for one teacher training day a year that focuses on SEND.
Ms Harris said she also supports more specialist hubs in schools, as long as they are properly staffed with teachers with specialist training, as well as proper courses to train parents.
They are changes she hopes to see included in the Government’s SEND white paper, which is due to be published early next year. Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson is planning a major overhaul of the in-crisis SEND system, following years of demands for reform from parents, teachers and experts.
Schools standards minister Georgia Gould told The Mirror much of the work was already underway, with the rollout of the Government’s Best Start Family Hubs, which were inspired by Tony Blair’s Sure Start centres, as well as work in the curriculum and assessment reviews.
Ms Gould, who worked in local government for 14 years before becoming an MP last year, blamed the scrapping of Sure Start centres under the Tories for a spike in issues among kids.
She said: “I think so much of the infrastructure around families was pulled away, Sure Start centres, family help, those preventative services that support the families were relying on, and I think we’re really seeing the impact of that in terms of the need that we’re seeing coming through.”
The education minister has been touring the country to speak to families, experts and teachers about SEND in recent months. Speaking at the Speech and Language UK office in London, Ms Gould suggested it would be a central pillar to the SEND white paper in the new year.
“I think speech and language is one of the themes that are coming out of the conversations we’re having,” she said. “When we’re talking to schools around where they really want to see support kind of wrapped around them, speech and language is always one of the top things that comes up.”
A Department for Education spokesman added: “This government inherited a SEND system on its knees, we’re listening to parents and putting families at the heart of plans to deliver a reformed system that provides better outcomes for every child, stands the test of time and rebuilds the confidence of parents.”