Representatives of leading early years organisations, including the NSPCC, Sure Start, I CAN, the Early Years Library Network and Coram Family, gathered to discuss the campaign.
Speaking at the conference Kamini Gadhok, professional director of the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists, commented on many parents'
reluctance to talk to their babies. 'There must be a societal and cultural shift to ensure that children become more valued and communication between parents and children is encouraged,' she said.
NLT director Neil McClelland also pointed to the need for a change in society to ensure that children receive a language-rich start in life. He said, 'I'm incredibly excited about Talk To Your Baby. What we can achieve through the campaign is phenomenal, but we need to work with other early years organisations to get the message across.'
The campaign aims to promote parents' role as their children's first educators and support professionals involved with language and communication. Talking to young children helps them to develop good language skills and enables better listening, learning, reading, writing and socialising.
According to the NLT, however, many children enter nursery and school with inadequate language and communication skills, and are more likely to experience learning, behavioural and relationship problems as a result.
Campaign director Liz Attenborough said, 'We want to get language and communication on every early years professional's agenda.
'Parents don't not talk to their baby wilfully, they often just don't realise how important it is. Some professionals need to be made aware of the simple things that can be done to encourage better communication with children.'
Practitioners can download a free Early Language Advocacy Kit and a leaflet of talking tips for parents from www.talktoyourbaby.com, or call 020 7828 2435. They are also invited to e-mail suggestions of other resources they would find useful to liz.attenborough@literacytrust.org.
