ABSTRACT
Children learn to talk gradually, and there are similar stages in learning to write. We would not expect a 2-year-old to say ‘Mother, I have a strong urge for you to assuage my hunger with a chocolate digestive.’ We would accept ‘Mummy! Biccy!’ as quite appropriate from a toddler learning to talk. In fact, there are clear links between learning to speak, and learning to read and write. Children who are late talkers often go on to have difficulties in learning to read, write and spell (see Chapter 4).
