Parents teaching nursery rhymes to be key part of early learning

NURSERY rhymes will be used to improve child literacy under a multimillion pound effort to stop children from disadvantaged backgrounds arriving at school already behind their peers.

Ministers today announced plans that will see families receive extra support to help boost children’s early language and communication skills at home before they start their formal education.

The Government has set aside £5million for trial projects to provide parents with practical advice to help their children learn new words with simple steps like reading, learning the alphabet and singing nursery rhymes at the heart of the scheme. Meanwhile, an £8.5million pot of funding has been created, which councils will be able to apply for to fund projects to improve early language and literacy development for disadvantaged children.

It is part of a wider push to close the so-called “word gap” – the gap in communication skills between disadvantaged children and their counterparts when they start school at the age of five.

Damian Hinds, the Education Secretary, said: “This new support will help parents with early language learning at home by giving them practical advice on activities like reading and learning the alphabet which are so important in making sure no child is left behind.”

The amount of time that parents spend on development activities like playing and reading with their children has risen from 23 minutes per day to 80 minutes over the past four decades.

However, research suggests that three-year-olds from disadvantaged backgrounds are 37 per cent less likely to be read to every day than their peers.

Writing in The Daily Telegraph, Nadhim Zahawi, minister for children and families, said: “These projects will trial different approaches for families, with activities like playing with letters, learning songs and nursery rhymes or drawing and painting. For parents who might lack confidence, whether reading aloud or playing games, this can give them a helpful starting point.”