CHILDREN are starting kindergarten with the speech skills of three-year-olds – and too much TV and a lack of extended family may be to blame.
Up to a quarter of kindergarten students have poor language skills, which hamper the ability to learn to read.
NSW public school teacher Sandra Smith has just published Teach Baby To Talk and Make Reading Fun after being shocked by the problem.
“Out of 30 children we had six to eight with speech problems in each kindergarten,” Mrs Smith said.
“It is articulation, pronunciation, vocabulary that is practically non-existent – and the inability to put a sentence together. Instead of saying ‘can I go to the toilet’ it is ‘I go toilet’. They are speaking in sentence structures that are more like three-year-olds than five-year-olds.”
Up to 28 per cent of boys and 19 per cent of girls aged eight to nine were considered “far below average” or “below average” in language and literacy skills by teachers in the Growing Up In Australia study in 2010.
Mrs Smith believes more children struggled with speech now than in previous generations she had taught over a 30-year career.
“There are many contributing factors, starting with television, computers and probably childcare,” she said.
“Babies need a lot of one-on-one time from birth to develop speech so childcare centres have to give enough stimulation.
“And parents these days don’t have the support network of extended families any more. Grandma and other relatives used to be nearby and they would correct speech. They aren’t there now to say ‘hang on, that is not how you say that’.”
Talking to older children in “baby talk” and allowing “cute” mispronunciations to remain uncorrected also contributed to the problem.
The Speech Pathology Association of Australia said up to 20 per cent of four to five year old Australian children had speech difficulties.
NSW was one of only two Australian states that did not have speech pathologists working in schools.
Professor Sharynne McLeod from Charles Sturt University, who specialises in speech and language acquisition, said students who started school with speech problems were more likely to be bullied and to not enjoy school.
“You translate oral speech and language ability to reading and writing,” she said.
“If that is not in place you are at a disadvantage.”
Mum of two Justine Hall, who yesterday enjoyed a children’s storytime session at Waverley Library, said daughters Lucie, 3½ and Brigitte, 14 months, both loved books.
“I think it is an important part of their development to be read to,” she said.
“My 3½-year-old likes stories about princesses and mermaids or fairies but she enjoys a full range of books.”
teachbabytotalk 
Thank you so much! Sandra