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.
Neil Mercer, emeritus professor of education at the University of Cambridge and director of the study centre Oracy@Cambridge, reminds us of our role in relation to this group. Writing in support of the Oracy Benchmarks (Voice21, 2020), he said: “You are the only second chance for some children to have a rich language experience. If these children are not getting it in school, they are not getting it.”
So how can we provide the kinds of experiences that can help children catch up in their language?
Busting the myths about language
Before schools can make sustained progress, they may first need to bust some common myths about language development.
The first, most prominent myth is that widely encouraging independent reading is the only real way to close the oracy gap.
However, the research tells us that readers need to be able to understand 95% to 98% of the other words in a passage before they can get to grips with any new, unfamiliar words on the page (Schmitt et al, 2011). The unfortunate truth is that many children with SLCN are nowhere near reaching this figure.
So while it works for good readers with wide vocabularies, it won’t work for everyone and will widen the vocabulary gap year-by-year unless other strategies are in place.
Reading aloud to children (and encouraging them to use audiobooks) gets round this problem. That’s why it is so important, at any age.
Another common myth is that approaches like having a class “word of the week” will do the trick in closing the gaps between pupils.
In reality, a pupil possessing the lowest 20% of vocabulary knowledge at age 5 would need to learn 20 new words a day, every day, in order to move up into the average range after three years (Biemiller & Slonim, 2001). Even a “word of the day” won’t cut it.
Even if many more words are explicitly taught to a class, there is a chance that we may inadvertently widen the vocabulary gap between disadvantaged children and their peers. Several studies have revealed that whole-class vocabulary interventions have a much bigger impact on children who start out with better language skills than those with weaker skills (Marulis & Neuman, 2010).
That’s why pre-teaching vocabulary and other forms of “extra” input for some groups of children are essential.
An introduction to better interactions
Short-term, small-group interventions, often led by teaching assistants, are a great way to help children catch up with language. These should be part of every school’s plan, but there are also approaches that can be incorporated into everyday interactions. Three core approaches that I recommend are as follows.
1, Recasting to build their repertoire
Speech and language therapists often use a technique called “recasting” when working with children – repeating back what a child has said, in correct or expanded form, adding new vocabulary in the process.
If when looking at a book a child of Reception-age says “look at that whale – it’s massive”, a teacher can respond, “it’s a giant whale, yes, swimming in the ocean”. Quickly they can add two new words to the pupil’s repertoire.
Or let’s say, for example, that an older child complains to his headteacher when sent out, that “she were going on at me”, the headteacher can respond: “Right, you felt that she was going on at you, criticising you – I wonder why?”
This is the most effective technique for dealing with grammatical errors – simply repeating back what the child has said in the correct form.
2, Identifying new words in advance
Pre-teaching new vocabulary, meanwhile, involves identifying key words in an upcoming topic or text and encouraging children to work together on those words before they are explained to the whole class. A basic teaching sequence structure for this is as follows:
- Say the new word, having pupils repeat it.
- Use a symbol or picture that illustrates that word, providing a simple definition.
- Include the word in a sentence, perhaps sharing a short made-up story in which the word is repeated.
- Ask pupils about the sounds in the word, like:
- What sound does it start with?
- What sound does it end with?
- How many syllables does it have? (You can clap them out together.)
- Can we think of another real word it rhymes with, or make up a silly word that rhymes instead?
- Ask pupils to think about what the word means:
- What do we do with it?
- Where might we see it/find it/keep it/use it?
- How does it feel?
- What does it look like?
- Which category does it fit in (for example, clothing or transport.)
- Share examples and non-examples – for example: “Wet sand is damp. Clothes can be damp. A desert is not damp.”
- Make links to your class’s experiences: “Is there anyone who has seen/likes/would use/knows this thing?”
- What else can you think of that is ... ? (Useful for adjectives.)
- Encourage pupils to act out the word (for verbs/adverbs) or to draw it.
3, Using read-alouds and interactive book-sharing
Book-sharing has been called “the rocket fuel of language development”, exposing children to vocabulary and language structures they might not hear elsewhere.
When planning how/when you share books in the early years, you could follow a suggestion from Penny Tassoni, president of the Professional Association for Childcare and Early Years, which is listing the names of children who need language support on a chart that is updated daily.
In this way, each time a staff member shares a book with a pupil, they can tick it against the child’s name. Another book means another tick, and so on. This provides an easy visual record to help monitor and support any child who hasn’t had many books shared.
Reading aloud to older children counts too; the more often the better. One school I know scheduled a daily whole-school story time. In term 1 adults positioned themselves around the school with a favourite book to read aloud to groups. In term 2, older children read to younger ones. In term 3, children within the same class paired up, with stronger readers reading aloud to partners.
In another school, staff videoed themselves reading stories aloud, posting them on social media so that pupils could listen at bedtime.
The scale of the task
Closing the word gap is a huge task. There’s no point in pretending otherwise. Children with biologically based language difficulties are likely to need sustained help and may not in fact ever quite “catch-up”. Yet those whose language difficulties come from lack of opportunities stand a better chance. They need, however, to be in oracy-focused schools where staff use every opportunity to scaffold vocabulary and complex language in the classroom, then follow that up with “extra” intervention sessions for small groups – and not just as a one off.
It may sound like hard work, and a lot of resource to commit, but we would do it for literacy and maths – so why not spoken language? Without good spoken language, the chances are that children won’t succeed in other subjects anyway. Language matters to everyone – and it matters right from the start.
- Jean Gross CBE is the former government communication champion for children and the author of Time to Talk (Routledge, 2018), Reaching the Unseen Children (Routledge, 2021), and Beating Bureaucracy in Special Educational Needs (Routledge, 2023). Jean recently contributed to Pearson’s Perspectives series via https://tinyurl.com/mvfechxx. Find her previous contributions for Headteacher Update via www.headteacher-update.com/authors/jean-gross
Headteacher Update Summer Term Edition 2024
- This article first appeared in Headteacher Update's Summer Term Edition 2024. This edition was sent free of charge to UK primary schools in May 2024. A free-to-access digital edition is also available via www.headteacher-update.com/content/downloads
Further information & resources
- Biemiller & Slonim: Estimating root word vocabulary growth in normative and advantaged populations: Evidence for a common sequence of vocabulary acquisition, Journal of Educational Psychology (93,3), 2001: https://tinyurl.com/yc3me36t
- IHV: State of health visiting: UK survey report: Millions supported as others miss out, 2024: https://tinyurl.com/bdfpvkwh
- Marulis & Neuman: The effects of vocabulary intervention on young children’s word learning: A meta-analysis, Review of Educational Research, (80,3), 2010: https://tinyurl.com/4wsttjvz
- Schmitt, Jiang & Grabe: The percentage of words known in a text and reading comprehension, The Modern Language Journal (95), 2011.
- Speech & Language UK: Listening to unheard children, 2023: https://tinyurl.com/mum2xtz9
- Voice21: The Oracy Benchmarks, 2020: https://tinyurl.com/549xcmj4