Literacy link to poor speech

Young children are struggling to learn to read and write because they cannot speak or listen properly, inspectors in UK warned.

Delays in development of speech and language are one of the most common barriers faced by children attempting to learn literacy skills, a report found.

The Removing Barriers to Literacy report looked at the factors that stop children from gaining good reading and writing skills.

It concludes: “Of the barriers facing the youngest children in the providers surveyed, a common problem was some form of delay of their development in speech and language.

“In one nursery visited, for example, where almost all children were of white British origin, approximately 30 per cent of the three-year-olds started nursery with a marked speech delay.”

Another common problem that meant children struggled with literacy skills was a “disturbed start to life”, the report said.

“In one nursery visited, most of the two-year-olds had already had some form of social care intervention by the time they joined the nursery.”

Inspectors visited schools mainly in poorer areas for the report. These schools had a clear idea of the reasons why some pupils struggled with literacy.

These included low aspirations in a child’s home with few set routines or boundaries for behaviour, poor attendance, a reluctance by parents to engage with the school and limited experience of life beyond the immediate community.

Ofsted chief inspector Christine Gilbert said: “Despite some major initiatives in recent years to improve reading and writing, the standards being reached by some groups of children and young people, including those from low-income families, certain ethnic groups and looked after children, still fall far below that of the rest of the population.”