The Guardian reports:
Pupils starting primary school increasingly need to be taught to speak because they have heard little language at home beyond the “daily grunt” from their parents, according to the report . . .
Research shows that success in school is largely dependent on communication skills, but in poorer homes children hear 500 different words a day, against 1,500 in a rich household, the report says . . .
In some parts of the country up to 50% of four- and five-year-olds cannot speak in sentences when they start school, the report says.
