News

The Foundation will help pre-school children across the country develop their language and communication skills via a partnership with the BBC’s Tiny Happy People initiative.

The project, which is backed by Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Cambridge, supports parents and carers in ensuring their children have the skills they need to settle well at school, such as being able to ask teachers simple questions, understand instructions and chat to their friends.

Sadly, across the UK not all children are able to do this, with around 1 in 4 children starting primary school having problems with language and communication.  This figure rises to more than 1 in 3 (42%) in some areas.

The Foundation runs a range of educational programmes for school age children as part of its commitment to education and developing potential in young people, but this is the first time we will be working with younger children aged 0-4 and we are excited to help Tiny Happy People make sure every child has the best start in life when it comes to language and communication.

The Tiny Happy People website has a wealth of content showing parents how they can bond with their child before they are born and throughout their early lives and why this is important.  The Foundation will be helping get this message out to parents and carers everywhere by sharing content, fun games and inspiring activities to help parents develop their child’s language skills. Quite a few of these will be football themed too!

“We’re working to a very simple underlying message: talk to your baby from as early as possible, starting with pregnancy,” says Cerys Griffiths, head of content production at BBC Education.

“Our ideas and activities are easy to build into a parent’s daily routine. They’re quick and inspiring, but they’re also based on expert advice and evidence, and are proven to help a child’s development.”

Watch out for the Foundation sharing Tiny Happy People resources on our social media accounts!

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