I believe radio is the best toy in the box for encouraging listening and communication.
The third birthday of abracaDABra! coincided with a Basic Skills Agency (BSA) launch last week of a campaign funded by the Welsh Assembly to encourage parents to talk more to babies and toddlers. This springs from a BSA survey in 2002 highlighting teachers' concern that many children are starting school without the communication skills needed to begin formal learning.
But regular daily radio can help. Sharing stories, songs and nursery rhymes and moving and dancing to music encourages listening, stimulates children's imaginations, nurtures concentration, develops language and co-ordination skills, and expands creativity.
We hold shared listening sessions, encouraging children to 'see with their ears', by creating radio plays and stories which children can recall for their teachers and parents. Moving to rhythm and music is also far easier when you're not tied to a flickering television or computer screen.
Daily radio can also help people who speak English as a second language.
Whole families can share the fun of songs, stories, games and rhymes without feeling pressured.
Despite these great benefits, children's radio needs are not protected in law, unlike television - an extraordinary anomaly that needs to be urgently addressed.
The National Campaign for Children's Radio, which I co-ordinate, holds radio to be essential to children's cultural development, and we are lobbying for radio spectrum, both digital and analogue, to be officially reserved for children so they can have more choice and more voice in this uniquely trusted and versatile medium.
* www.uk-dab.info/abracadabra Margot, aged seven, e-mails, 'Mummy and I LOVE your radio station. It's the best station we've ever heard. We look forward to hearing it every single day!! Keep up the great, fantastic and excellent singing and stories.'
Kate, a parent, says, 'Thank you for playing such fun music. My four month old son and I are really enjoying it, especially Chitty Chitty Bang Bang...!'Another tells of how much we delight and help his daughter who has Downs Syndrome.
