Hello to the national year of communication
Hello is the national year of communication – a campaign to increase understanding of how important it is for children and young people to develop good communication skills. The campaign is run by The Communication Trust, a coalition of over 35 leading voluntary sector organisations, in partnership with Jean Gross, the Government’s Communication Champion.
A child with a speech, language and communication need may struggle to get words out of their mouth or not understand words that are being used. They may have difficulties holding a conversation, have multiple difficulties or simply have a limited vocabulary. These barriers are often invisible to others, meaning their needs are often misrepresented, misdiagnosed or missed altogether.
Please visit www.hello.org.uk for information on how you can help improve the communication skills of children and young people and to sign up for regular updates. You can also follow the campaign on Twitter [LINK: http://twitter.com/Comm_nTrust] and facebook [LINK: http://on.fb.me/9yHIIZ].
In the UK today, over 1 million children and young people have some form of speech, language and communication need. This can affect them severely and for life. In areas of poverty, over 50% of children start school with delayed language skills. This puts them at a huge disadvantage to their peers as they struggle to learn and make friends.
In the 21st century, the ability to communicate – to say what you want to say and to understand what other people are saying is fundamental
Speech, language and communication underpins everything we do e.g. making our needs known and expressing our likes and dislikes
For some children communication skills are much harder to grasp and develop than others; they have speech, language and communication needs
10% of all children have long term or persistent speech, language and communication needs
7% of all children have speech, language and communication needs as their main difficulty also known as specific language impairment (SLI)
3% of all children have speech, language and communication needs as part of another condition such as autism
At least 60% of young people in the youth justice system have communication needs
Hello aims to make communication for all children and young people a priority in homes and schools across the UK so that they can live life to the full. The campaign is backed by the Department for Education and supported by BT.
In the UK today over 1 million children and young people have some form of speech, language and communication need
