A charity's initiative has received government backing to provide speech and language intervention in all early-years settings.
Nurseries and preschools will have access to a speech and language therapist.
A three-year project by Every Child Our Future, which began in 2022, placed therapists into five early years settings to work alongside teachers.
One of these saw an increase from under 50% to 90% of children achieving age-appropriate language levels after just two academic years.
Its beginning was funded by a grant from Jersey Community Foundation, which helped pat the therapist's salaries.
Now, with government funding secured and the support of Education Minister Rob Ward, the model will now be 'embedded' island-wide.
Cris Lakeman, CEO of Every Child Our Future, says language skills are critical to a child’s ability to develop in many other ways:
"Your early language underpins all of your future learning and your ability to communicate with others, get along with them, build friendships, and make yourself understood.
"If you don't have that basic good speech, language and communication in place, it's really difficult to progress."
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