PARLIAMENTARY EARLY DAY MOTION
CHILDREN WITH SPEECH, LANGUAGE AND COMMUNICATION DIFFICULTIES (24 April 2007)

That this House notes that five to eight per cent. of pre-school age children have speech, language or communication problems and 1.2 million children need specialist help; further notes that up to 50 per cent. of five year olds arrive at school without the speech and language skills they need to participate; recognises the importance of early intervention and the dangers of late intervention, including developmental disadvantage, damage to social skills and employment prospects, educational underachievement, emotional problems and behavioural problems; acknowledges the challenges faced by parents in accessing appropriate treatment and specialist provision for their children, including difficulties with statementing and local healthcare providers; supports the excellent work by speech and language therapists, who are in a shortage profession; believes that therapists should be members both of multidisciplinary teams assessing swallowing and feeding needs of babies and of interdisciplinary teams under Sure Start; further believes that therapists should be attached to every school with an inclusion policy for children with communication difficulties; supports specialist provision, both in mainstream settings and special schools; calls for increased training and awareness of communication difficulties for teachers, doctors, other professionals and special educational needs co-ordinators so that they can better understand the needs of children; calls on the Government to ensure that departments work together to ensure comprehensive access to specialist care; and urges the Government to consult on the development of a universal screening tool to detect speech, language and communication difficulties amongst young children.

Sponsored by:
John Bercow (Speaker)