One in six children have problems learning to talk

ALMOST one in six children in Britain have problems learning to talk, with boys facing more difficulties than girls.

And ‘beer’, ‘cat’ and ‘Hoover’ are among the more unusual first words spoken by children.

More than one in five (22%) of boys experience problems with talking and understanding speech, compared to 13% of girls, according to a poll of over 1,000 parents of kids aged one to seven.

Boys are also twice as likely as girls (5% compared to 2%) to have significant problems with talking.

The poll was published by Jean Gross, England’s Communications Champion, to mark the start of her new post.

The findings show that almost 17% of children face difficulties with communication.

A quarter (23%) do not receive any help, and almost half (46%) did not receive help from a speech and language therapist.

Around six in 10 parents believe the ability to talk, listen and understand is the most important skills for children to develop during their early years, ahead of interacting with others (26%), reading (11%) numeracy (2%) and writing (1%).

Ms Gross said: “Our ability to communicate is fundamental and underpins everything else. Learning to talk is one of the most important skills a child can master in the 21st century.”

The poll showed that many parents try to improve their child’s speech and language skills by spending time with their kids looking at picture books, telling stories, and singing nursery rhymes.

The survey also found that the most common age for children to say their first word was between 10 and 11 months.

More girls than boys (34% compared to 27%) said their first word before they were nine months old, while 4% had not said their first word by the time they were three years old.

The most common first word was “dadda” or “dada”, cited by 15% of those questioned, compared to “mamma” or “mama” mentioned by 10%.

Apart from variations on “mum” and “dad”, the most common first word was “cat”.