Ms Gross, an educational psychologist and a former senior director of the Government's Primary National Strategy, is currently director of the Every Child a Chance Trust, which runs the Every Child Counts and Every Child a Reader programmes. She will take up the post of Communication Champion in the New Year.
Ms Gross told Nursery World, 'I visit lots of primary schools, some with nurseries and children's centres attached. Many headteachers, particularly of schools in deprived areas, have told me that they are worried about some children who are significantly behind with their oral communication skills.
'All the initiatives aimed at improving literacy and numeracy are great, but we also need to focus on oral language skills because they underpin numeracy and literacy. We need to seize the moment while the primary curriculum is changing and say that speech and language are key in their own right.'
Ms Gross said that she found the latest Early Years Foundation Stage Profile results encouraging, as they show year-on-year improvements in the assessment scale for Language for Communication and Thinking.
The communication champion post was created in response to recommendations made in the 2008 Bercow report, which identified the areas where services need to improve to help children and young people with speech, language and communication needs.
Virginia Beardshaw, chief executive of I CAN, the children's communication charity, said, 'We are confident that Jean will be a force for change in her role as champion. Jean is a greatly respected educationalist and her insight and expertise will add great value to the work that is already underway.'
