I rarely meet a teacher these days who isn’t concerned about the growing number of children with speech, language and communication needs (SLCNs) and it isn’t likely to get better any time soon.
In a recent survey (IHV, 2024), 82% of health visitors reported seeing a year-on-year increase in children with speech, language and communication delays in their pre-school caseloads.
And surveys undertaken by Speech and Language UK (2023) estimate that at least 1.9 million primary and secondary-aged children are struggling with talking and understanding words. That equates to one in five school-aged children – the highest number ever recorded.
While some of these 1.9 million will have biologically based language difficulties that need specialist help, many more have needs that stem from a lack of opportunity in their environment to hear and use the kind of vocabulary and language structures that they need to succeed in school.
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