Failure to invest sufficiently in support services for young childrenmeans thousands of children are destined to leave school 'illiterate,pregnant, unqualified, unaspirational and underachieving', said thegroup in Getting in early: primary schools and early intervention.
The study by MPs, education experts and academics, published by theCentre for Social Justice and the Smith Institute, argues that spokenlanguage is the foundation for success in school.
Jean Gross, director of the Every Child a Chance Trust and editor of thestudy, said head teachers talk of 'increasing numbers of children whohear little language at home beyond the "daily grunt".'
She added, 'In a poor household, a child will hear 500 different words aday; in a rich household they will hear 1,500. As a result, it isestimated that one in ten children start school unable to talk insentences or understand simple instructions.'
She said 'remedial action at the age of eight, nine or ten is too late'and called for a local early intervention strategy for each area.
Measures recommended in the study include one-to-one reading support forsix-year-olds, speech therapy and coaching in social and emotionalskills.
Contributor Graham Allen, Labour MP for Nottingham North, called for acoherent early intervention strategy applied across generations andsaid, 'Early intervention may lack the drama of the banking bail-out,but it is equally necessary and equally revolutionary.'
MP John Bercow, who led the Bercow Review into children's speech,language and communication, said early identification and intervention'should be writ large in the priorities of children's commissioners andservice providers everywhere.'
Limited language skills lead to literacy problems, which then leads tobehavioural problems, said the study.
