AIM:

This aim of this research proposal is to understand the impact that children's early physical and communication environments have on their developing speech and language skills. The findings will be of use to parents, health visitors, health promotion and public health, early years practitioners and educationalists with regard to which environments and behaviours are most helpful in promoting early speech and language development and which can have a deleterious effect. This is particularly important given recent changes in society which mean that children are being brought up in homes where there are numerous devices which can be used to occupy them rather than engage them in conversation. Moreover, other lifestyle factors could also be having an impact but to date have been subject to minimal investigation (e.g. central heating, forward facing buggies, eating together). Whilst there is much evidence on the importance of parent child interaction on the development of speech and language in young children, there has not been the opportunity to date to investigate how this interacts with these other factors relating to the physical environment.

The findings of this study will also be of interest to the government. A recent DfE report based on data from the original ALSPAC sample (Roulstone, Law, Rush, Clegg, Peters, 2011, DFE RR134) found that vocabulary scores at age 2 years old were associated with baseline scores on entry to primary school, which are themselves related to academic outcomes later on. Low academic outcomes and persistent speech and language impairment are both associated with poor social and economic outcomes and a greater cost to the nation. This study will aim to identify factors early on in the child's development, including data collected in the child's home, which could impact on vocabulary at age 2 and language skills and academic skills beyond.

In the course of collecting data on variables which impact on early speech and language development, normative data will be collected using tools which have been developed in the US and for which UK norms are not currently available. These data will be of help to health visitors and early years practitioners in the future as they will assist in the process of early identification of children at risk of speech and language impairment. Currently, children are not typically identified until age 2 at the earliest.