Opinion: To the point - Let's all talk to babies

Last week I read some alarming findings - a small but significant percentage of three-year-olds (4 per cent) couldn't talk. The survey published by the Government's new communication champion, Jean Gross, also found boys were almost twice as likely to struggle to learn to speak as girls.

This reminded me how we need to constantly rethink what we know about babies and language. It is too easy to assume that language just comes naturally. It doesn't. It needs parents and others to communicate with children from birth.

For some parents, doing this comes more easily than for others. The Family and Parenting Institute's own work shows that early years services can play a crucial role in helping parents interact and communicate.

Parents can be embarrassed and confused about talking to a baby who doesn't talk back, but if they are shown that it's not about teaching - that it's about chatting, listening, singing, showing pictures - they see the positive effect they can have on their babies. Early years workers need to help parents with this early communication and also remember to do it themselves. Baby rooms in nurseries shouldn't be quiet spaces - babies there need to be talked to, sung to, read to.

Speaking to colleagues and early years practitioners has shown me that children learn to talk at different stages. Indeed, some very bright children talk later. But it's useful if you are working in a nursery to have a yardstick to see if you might offer parents extra help and support. The average baby has said their first word by one and the average two-year-old has a vocabulary of about 300 words.

Children who have not developed their language by two or three can be less ready to start reading when they get to school. This can have a dramatically negative effect on their progress.

It seems boys' and girls' brains develop language ability at different rates, but research has also shown that parents tend to engage boys less in the kind of activities that develop language. We need to help parents redress that balance.

Babies are social beings. As early years workers, you play a crucial and often underrated role in helping them communicate in the nursery and at home.

- For more information on helping parents, visit: www.earlyhomelearning.org.uk.