Nursery World - Language unlocks reading

Andrea Quincey is head of primary English at Oxford University Press, which has today published a policy report, Language unlocks reading, with the National Literacy Trust and the APPG on Literacy. This highlights the crucial link between children’s early language skills and life chances.

I’ve worked closely with primary schools and experts in the field of primary literacy for many years and one of the key challenges facing primary teachers today is the growing number of children starting school with a limited vocabulary and poor communication skills. In fact, last year some 180,000 five-year-olds started primary school without the language, communication and literacy skills expected for their age[i].

This growing ‘word gap’ is a complex issue with a myriad of causes. But there is no denying the impact it can have on children’s capacity to learn, on their ability to make friends and generally ‘fit in’ at school and, consequently, on their self-esteem and mental health. Longer term, we know that children with poor language and communication skills at age five are six times less likely to reach the expected standard in English at age 11 and twice as likely to be unemployed aged 34[ii].

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