Hungry Little Minds is the latest in a growing list of government programmes aimed at tackling the "word gap". Underpinning these programmes is research showing children living in disadvantaged homes hear up to 30 million fewer words - total rather than unique words - than their peers, impeding the development of language and communication skills.
As early education expert James Hempsall describes, many of the programmes tackling the word gap involve practitioners working with pre-school children. For example, TALK Derby, an Opportunity Area programme, is training childcare staff and childminders to identify speech, language and communication (SLC) needs early so that support can be put in place; while Public Health England is funding a scheme to train 1,000 health visitors in new techniques to support children's SLC development.
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