ABSTRACT
The ability to communicate – to say what you want to say and to understand what other people are saying – is fundamental to life chances.
Some of the statistics about the links between language skills and life chances are startling. For example:
● vocabulary at age five is one of the most significant predictors of the qualifications pupils achieve when they leave school;
● more than half of children starting school in socially disadvantaged areas of England have delayed language; and
● two thirds of 7-to 14-year-olds with serious behaviour problems have language impairment.
