A unique structured therapy programme is changing the prospects of nursery children with speech and language delay. Ruth Thomson reports.

A speech and language programme, devised under a Sure Start project, is gaining in popularity and has plans for expansion as concerns about language delay in young children continue to grow.

BLAST - Boosting Language, Auditory Skills and Talking - is a six-week course aimed at enhancing the language and communication skills of three- and four-year-olds by focusing on vocabulary and pre-linguistic skills such as attention, memory, listening and speech sound awareness.

It was designed by Middlesbrough speech and language therapist Nikki Joyce in response to the high level (50 per cent) of four-year-olds entering local schools with a measurable speech and language delay.

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