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An astonishing 63% of people in the UK fail to understand how children should be communicating and at what age,¹ research published today by I CAN – the children’s communication charity revealed today.

Basic communication stages recommended by I CAN speech and language experts. 

Age	Communication milestone
0-1 years	Recognise parents voice, make basic sounds and copy facial expressions
1-2 years	Understand basic words and use hand gestures
2-3 years	Put basic sentences together
3-4 years	Ask lots of questions and socialise with friends
4-5 years	Speak confidently in conversations with occasional mistakes

The survey into the nation’s awareness of children’s communication development between the ages of 0-5, completed by ICM on behalf of I CAN and Openreach, a BT Group business, showed that only 36% of the UK population were able to correctly identify at what age children should be able to complete various communication milestones.  Even parents of 0-5 year-olds are only slightly more aware of such development stages with just 43% of them able to identify the various important stages.

The South East leads the way in the children’s communication knowledge charts with 42% being aware of the milestones whilst the East Midlands sits at the bottom with just 31%.

Recent evidence shows that more than half of children in some areas of the UK are starting primary school without the basic speech, language and communication skills they need to learn and make friends². These children are facing an increased risk of academic failure and social exclusion³. Research shows that children under five who receive support from parents, family members and carers, are more likely to develop the communication skills they need.

To help people identify everyday tasks as communication and interaction opportunities with children aged 0-5, I CAN and Openreach, a BT Group business, have developed; Chatter Matters: Making life easier for you and better for your child, a DVD resource to help families and child carers support young children’s communication development. Openreach is using its network of employees to distribute the DVD as widely as possible.  The resource is launched today by Clinical Psychologist Dr Tanya Byron as part of Make Chatter Matter Month.

Virginia Beardshaw, I CAN Chief Executive comments: “This research shows that we aren’t sufficiently aware of children’s communication milestones. There simply aren’t enough resources for families, teachers and carers to help them understand what these are. It is essential that families and carers know broadly what their child should be doing at certain ages and they also need to know when to be concerned. We know there is a ‘golden time’ from 0-5 where if problems with speech and language are picked up, there is a much greater chance of solutions being found. This is why our Make Chatter Matter campaign is asking for families and carers to automatically receive information on communication development. As a nation we need to encourage our children to talk just like we encourage our children to walk”.

The study found that while we have an awareness of our children’s speech and language development stages, we often expect too much too early, or fail to recognise our children’s potential at the later stages.

The regional findings are as follows:

 

	Region	Awareness %
1	South East	42
2	North East	40
=	Wales	40
4	Eastern	39
5	North West	37
=	Yorkshire & Humberside	37
7	Scotland	36
=	West Midlands	36
9	London	35
10	South West	34
11	East Midlands	31

Dr Tanya Byron said: “Communication skills are essential for healthy brain and behavioural development in children. They enable children to acquire vital social skills and help to maximise their potential in all aspects of learning. Nursery rhymes, songs, stories and happy chatter provide the firm foundations for our excellent future communicators.”

Dawn James, Openreach Communications Director, said: “Openreach is delighted to be involved in the production and distribution of Chatters Matters as part of the ‘First Mile’ education programme. The Chatter Matters resource is designed to help people who look after pre-schoolers ensure children develop communication skills to help them progress through life.”

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