Communicating through song: language acquisition in Early Years

In my many conversations with Early Years practitioners, one topic always arises: the significant number of children between the ages of three and five exhibiting a worrying lack of language and communication skills.

The Early Intervention Foundation, an independent charity focused on promoting and enabling an evidence-based approach to early intervention, summarises succinctly the importance of a strong start: ‘Early language acquisition impacts on all aspects of young children’s non-physical development. It contributes to their ability to manage emotions and communicate feelings, to establish and maintain relationships, to think symbolically, and to learn to read and write. While the majority of young children acquire language effortlessly, a significant minority do not. We believe the fundamental link between language and other social, emotional and learning outcomes makes early language development a primary indicator of child wellbeing’.