MEASURING DEVELOPMENT
The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) framework sets the standards and requirements that all early years providers must follow to ensure all children have the best start in life and are prepared for school. It requires that children be assessed against the EYFS Profile in the summer term of the academic year in which they turn five and as such is a useful indication of local, regional and national trends in the developments of young children.
The EYFS Profile is intended to provide an accurate representation of each child’s development at the end of the EYFS to support their transition into year 1. It comprises an assessment of the child’s outcomes in relation to 17 early learning goals (ELGs) across seven areas of learning.
The three prime areas of learning are: communication and language; personal, social and emotional development; and physical development. These prime areas are particularly important for children’s healthy development and are the basis for successful learning in the four specific areas of learning: literacy; mathematics; understanding the world; and expressive arts and design.
DEVELOPMENT TRENDS
In 2023/24, nearly 68% of children had a good level of development and 66% were at the expected level across all 17 ELGs. These percentages increased by around half a percentage point in 2023/24 compared with a year earlier, which is smaller than the rise of around two percentage points seen in from 2021/22 to 2022/23. Each child, on average, had reached the expected level in 14.1 ELGs, unchanged from 2022/23 and 2021/22.
The Department for Education, which collates and publishes the EYFS data, suggests the improvements seen in recent years across the two key measures could be attributable to the gradual recovery from the disruption to early learning services and activities caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, and practitioners becoming more adept at meeting the expectations of the revised assessment framework introduced in late 2021.
However, development levels are still behind where they were pre pandemic – in 2018/19, 72% of children achieved a good level of development and 71% were at expected levels across all ELGs.
There’s no clear consensus on why we’re seeing this increase in language delay, but theories include the long-term impact of the pandemic, high levels of economic disadvantage, and a rise in the number of children with special educational needs. Most likely all of these factors play a part, says Sophie Hutton (see expert view).
UNDERSTANDING COVID’S IMPACT
Several research studies have highlighted the negative impact that the disruption to early education services in the first year of the pandemic had on the learning and socialisation of young children.
A 2024 survey of health visitors by the Institute of Health Visiting found 82% of practitioners reported a rise in children with speech, language and communication delays and 70% reported an increase in child behaviour problems. Meanwhile, 93% of health visitors reported an increase in the number of families affected by poverty over the same time period (see big debate).
Research published last November by charity Speech and Language UK suggested that up to 1.9 million school children struggle to talk and understand words. The survey of families found that half of children with speech and language problems were missing school as a result. The charity points out that left unsupported, such children are up to 11 times more likely to be behind in key subjects at school and twice as likely to be unemployed as young adults.
The Children of the 2020s (COT20s) is aiming to longitudinally measure and track the circumstances and outcomes of babies, and their families, over the first five years of life, to provide data for researchers and policymakers relating to early learning and development, early childhood education and care, and family services. The study’s first survey took place in late 2022 as England was adjusting to post pandemic life. Key findings include that in the first 9.5 months of a child’s life, 41% of children and 57% of parents were infected with Covid-19. At the same age, 20% of children had one serious or longstanding health or developmental condition and 5% had two conditions. Children who experienced a lower frequency and variety of home learning activities at 9.5 months on average understood fewer words.
SCHOOL READINESS
The proportion of children that start reception class with the skills and knowledge ready to learn – known as school readiness – has recently been in the spotlight after the Prime Minister Keir Starmer made it a priority to increase this from two thirds to three quarters of children by 2028.
The policy emphasis follows several studies that found high numbers of children starting school that have yet to achieve developmental milestones. A 2022 survey by YouGov revealed that 90% of teachers had at least one child in their class that was not toilet trained, and the same proportion reported at least one pupil that did not have basic language skills.
Recent research by the Centre for Young Lives and Child of the North found an “alarming rise” in early years developmental delays in recent years resulting in “huge numbers” of children not ready for school. Researchers said the scale of the problem was particularly severe for disadvantaged children, with 45% of those eligible for free school meals not being school ready. It also finds that the percentage of school ready children varies across England, from just 59% in Manchester to 84% in London.
Separate research from the University of Leeds found children who are not classed as “school ready” by the time they start reception are more likely to be persistently absent in later years. The study finds that 67% of all persistent absentees – those with school attendance below 90% – were considered “not school ready” when they entered reception. Researchers analysed data for over 60,000 children aged five to 13 from across the Bradford district alongside school absence records from 2012 to 2020.
POLICY AND PRACTICE RESPONSE
The government has included improving early child development – measured by increasing the proportion of reception-age children that are school ready from 67% to 75% – as one of its six key pledges for this parliament. To help achieve this, it has announced an extra £2 billion for early years provision in the form of an average 4% uplift in hourly fees for government funded childcare and a 40% rise in the early years pupil premium for providers operating in the most disadvantaged areas. It also aims to tackle the shortage of childcare places by releasing funds to create 3,000 extra nursery settings in unused school buildings. This, it says, will help deliver the expansion of the funded childcare programme – which, from September, will see parents of all children aged from nine months b e entitled to 30 hours of provision a week – and ensure more children get access to high quality early education.
The government’s focus on early years provision is backed up by evidence from parents about the benefits it provides for children’s development. A recent survey of 2,000 parents by the DfE’s Childcare Choices campaign found that 56% reported that improved communication and social skills were the most noticeable skills gained by their child attending a setting.
The COT20 findings show that 43% of families had used some form of early childhood education and care by the time a child is nine months old. Higher income families used childcare more often – 40% regularly used informal childcare and 23% regularly used formal. By contrast, single parent families were high users of informal childcare (40%) but low users of formal childcare (9%).
The government hopes additional support for childminders provided by the previous government will improve access to affordable childcare for more disadvantaged families – this includes a £600 start-up grant, with a £1,200 grant for those who sign up with an agency, for new childminders registering with Ofsted.
There is also hope that the government’s child poverty review will result, later this year, in measures to improve support for struggling families, including access to childcare. Experts also emphasis that reducing family poverty will have benefits for children’s overall wellbeing and development.
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EXPERT VIEW: THREE WAYS TO TACKLE LANGUAGE DELAY IN CHILDREN UNDER FIVE
Sophie Hutton is chief executive of Nest Therapy nursery provision where she uses Widgit Symbols for children’s speech, language and communication needs
If you work with early years children, you may find that more children than ever are finding it difficult to answer questions, join in with activities, or chat with their friends.
When children have difficulties expressing themselves, it can make starting school much harder. Fortunately, there are some creative strategies which teachers, therapists and parents can use to build children’s confidence in communicating.
1. HELP CHILDREN NAVIGATE THE DAY
Arriving at a new setting, whether that’s a nursery, preschool or childminder’s home, can be a daunting experience for a child with limited communication skills. Day-to-day routines, such as tidying toys away or washing hands before lunch, can feel confusing to a child, particularly when they don’t have the ability to express their confusion.
An effective way to show children what is going to happen during the day is to provide visual timetables which use easily decodable symbols to depict specific activities.
To help children understand what to expect, a practitioner puts the symbols together in the form of a timetable. For instance, symbols for hanging a coat on a peg, placing a lunchbox on a shelf, and sitting down on the carpet, show children what happens at the start of a session. Share these with families.
2. USE STORY CHARACTERS
Adjusting to a new environment and meeting new people is harder for children if they lack the language skills to name their emotions. If a child can’t say why they are angry or afraid, then the adults around them won’t know how to address the problem.
That’s why many settings use puppets to explore emotions, because children find it easier to say why a puppet feels sad than to talk about their own sadness.
Children can often identify emotions in storybook characters too. Having named the emotion, staff can then ask questions such as, “What could Goldilocks have done instead?” or “What would make Red Riding Hood feel better?” Using story characters children know and love can help them recognise and express their own emotions.
3. WORK CLOSELY WITH FAMILIES
The Education Endowment Foundation suggests the more engaged parents are in learning, the better children’s language and literacy is likely to be.
There are many ways early years professionals can help families to support their child. For instance, we often ask parents to use family photos to start conversations at home. A picture of mummy washing the car or an older sibling baking a cake will stimulate conversation. This works well when parents ask simple questions such as “What is Mummy doing?” This encourages children to construct short sentences about familiar people doing everyday activities. It also develops the habit of conversation which is fundamental to communication. The easier we make it for young children to communicate, the more confident future communicators they will be.
FURTHER READING
EYFS profile results 23/24, DfE, November 2024
Speech & Language UK report, November 2024
An evidenced-based approach to supporting children in the pre-school years, Centre for Young Lives, November 2024
Childcare Choices survey of parents, July 2024
State of Health Visiting survey, iHV, January 2024
COT20 study findings, DfE, November 2023
