A poll conducted as part of the National Year of Communication, revealed that of the 6,000 adults surveyed (48 per cent of whom were parents of children under five), only a quarter knew babies say their first words between 12 and 18 months. Just one in five knew that more than one million children and young people have some form of long-term communication difficulty in the UK.
The survey results, published to mark the launch of the Hello campaign, are now going to be used to highlight speech, language and communication difficulties in nurseries and schools across the country.
Jean Gross, England's communication champion, said: "Public understanding of children’s communication difficulties remains worryingly low. The automatic response seems to be to blame parents or technology. This just isn’t right. We need to clear up the confusion and myths that exist around this subject. Around 10 per cent of children have some form of long-term communication difficulty that can affect them early, severely and for life.
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