Yvonne Wren, University of Bristol

Learning to speak does not happen in a vaccum. Interaction with peers and the wider world is crucial. charlein gracia | unsplash, FAL

The pandemic means many children will have spent the best part of a  year interacting much less than normal with teachers, friends and  family. One of the big questions is how this will have changed the way  they have learned to speak. Have lockdown and other COVID-19 measures  affected how children acquire the speech and language skills so vital to  their academic and social development? And if children’s speech has  been held back, what can parents do about it?

A recent survey of schools and parents, conducted by the Education Endowment  Foundation, has found that children who started school in autumn 2020 needed more support than in previous years.

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