SPEECH AND LANGUAGE DIFFICULTIES NOT ALWAYS THE PARENTS’ FAULT: UTU

You can’t blame too much telly and too little parenting for every child’s speech and language difficulties, a leading educationalist claimed today.

Melanie Houston, principal of Fivemiletown Primary in Co Tyrone and a speech and language specialist, was commenting on a survey for the UK charity the Communication Trust revealing common misconceptions about the cause of serious communication difficulties.

The charity stated that the exact cause of such problems was often unknown, biological or genetic and revealed a lack of knowledge among parents about speech and language developmental milestones.

However, Ms Houston said whatever the reason, the fact remained that some P1s had such a limited vocabulary and under-developed social skills that teachers struggled to communicate with them.

“A staggering 40% of under-fours in Northern Ireland have potential communication difficulties – and the number is rising, according to the latest statistics in the Northern Ireland Taskforce of Speech and Language,” she continued.

"In older classes about 10% of children, that's two to three in every classroom, have some form of long term communication difficulty that can affect them early, severely and for life.

"Their brains just don't process language in quite the same way that other children's brains do.

"It’s great when parents turn off the TV and actually talk to their children, but we should not be blaming parents for the speech problems based on biological difficulties."

Ms Houston said that without the help children affected faced multiple educational risks which could lead, in many cases, to lower educational attainment; behavioural problems; poor employment prospects – even a descent into criminality.

“The Northern Ireland Taskforce report also reveals that a third of children with speech and language difficulties go on to experience mental health problems,” she said.

“Early intervention and a cross-departmental approach on the issue is required. Health and Education must work together – children and the issues they face can’t be separated into boxes.

“However, whilst it may appear to make financial good sense to have less qualified people working in the preschool sector, this is when communication skills are being built and it is not educationally valid. We should be talking about education, not care and not ‘educare’.

“Early childhood is an optimal moment to support sensory, cognitive, social and language development. And teachers are best placed to identify and provide for these needs.”