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.
Perversely, UK laws protect children's television but not their radio. Adults (aged 15 and above) have their listening choice written into the statute but children do not. For years the BBC argued that children preferred TV. Should we remove fresh fruit juice and green vegetables because kids prefer burgers and pop?
About £12m has been pledged towards implementing the recommendations in the Bercow Report, with a further £40m to train early years workers to identify and tackle the problems.
MPs and peers across all parties agree with educators on the value of radio in young children's leisure and learning. It would make sense for some of that money to be invested in a National Nursery of the Airwaves.
