Nursery World - 'Talk more important than early literacy'

Day nurseries should concentrate more on spoken language skills rather than on literacy skills, research presented this week to the Division of Educational and Child Psychology Conference in Bourne- mouth suggests. The researchers, Ann Locke and Dr Jane Ginsborg of Sheffield University, found that three-year-olds in socio-economically disadvantaged areas are entering day nurseries with delayed language and in many cases their language has either not improved or shows more delay two years later.

The researchers, Ann Locke and Dr Jane Ginsborg of Sheffield University, found that three-year-olds in socio-economically disadvantaged areas are entering day nurseries with delayed language and in many cases their language has either not improved or shows more delay two years later.

The researchers recruited 240 children from four nurseries in areas of socio-economic deprivation. During their first term they underwent two standardised tests of their language skills and cognitive abilities, which were repeated two years later.

At the beginning of the study more than half (55 per cent) of the children showed language delay. After two years this decreased slightly to 49 per cent, but the prevalence of severe language delay increased almost threefold from nine per cent to 26 per cent. The least language-competent girls were found to have improved but the least language competent boys did not.

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