Nursery World - Opinion: In my view

By Susan Stranks, co-ordinator of the National Campaign for Children's Radio.

The Bercow Report (Analysis, 17 July) confirms that one in 14 five-year-olds lacks the language skill to communicate their needs or to understand simple commands. The report warns such a deficit can lead to lower educational attainment; behavioural problems; emotional and psychological difficulties; poor employment prospects; challenges to mental health and, in some cases, a descent into criminality.

Forty practical recommendations for improvement are listed, to which I would add one more - young children must have a dedicated radio network.

To acquire language we must first learn to listen, and a daily diet of radio can foster children's listening skills and thus their language. Radio stimulates imagination and improves concentration, memory and mental and physical co-ordination. It helps children with speech, language and communication needs, and supports their parents and carers in an accessible, non-patronising way. It also aids families for whom English is a foreign language.

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