West Berkshire in the top 10 areas for increases in speech and language needs of children

West Berkshire has seen one of the biggest increases in speech and language needs of children in the past year.

The number of year one pupils in the district now requiring support with speech, language and communication jumped by 36.11 per cent between 2020-2021 and 2021-2022, BBC analysis shows.

This figure puts West Berkshire in the top 10 authorities in the country and way above the national average, which shows a 10 per cent rise.

Experts say the main reason for the jump is due to the effects of Covid lockdowns, while the government said it is investing £180m into early years development.

But the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists said therapists were struggling to cope with the increased demand for their services.

In April we reported how two West Berkshire speech therapists had launched the world’s first online speech therapy club in a bid to tackle the growing crisis of toddlers with delayed speech.

Claire Whittaker and Claire Heslop told Newburytoday at the time that they were spurred into finding a way to help when they were being contacted by more and more parents of pre-school children worried about their child’s development during the coronavirus lockdown.

Mrs Whittaker said: “We are getting an insight into a real crisis that’s going to happen.”

The BBC’s Shared Data Unit anaylsis showed that across the country the number of five and six-year-olds needing help with language has increased more than any other special educational need.

In total 42,341 children needed extra support in 2021-22, compared to 38,560 the previous year.

Kamini Gadhok, chief executive of the Royal College of Speech, Language Therapists, said: “It is a real worry. Our members have been telling us anecdotally that they’ve been seeing a huge increase in the number of children referred to them.

“We’ve been very aware, from the surveys we’ve done, that the pandemic has had an impact, not just because of services being closed or schools not being open, but also because children were not able to interact in a way that they used to.

“It’s really important to remember that we learn to communicate by socialising with other pepole.

“All of those interactions were impacted during the pandemic.

Minister for Schools and Childhood, Kelly Tolhurst, said: “The early years of a child’s life are vital, not only in establishing important developmental skills, but also in building a lifelong love of learning that will help them succeed in adult life.

“I’m really proud of the quality and dedication of our early years workforce. This package of support is a huge investment in their skills and professional development, because raising the status of this important sector is key to its growth.”