Early Years Scotland’s Policy & Engagement Manager, Lorna Kettles, reflects on the worrying post-Covid increase in problems related to the speech and language development of young children.

I am a yapper. I’ve always been a yapper. I spoke before I could walk and almost every positive thing every written on a report card throughout my school days was caveated with the fact that I was, indeed, very chatty. So much of what I do in my role with this wonderful organisation involves talking – whether that’s to families, our members, other organisations or policy and decision makers. I could talk about early years, and the importance of investing in young children until the proverbial cows come home – at which point, I’d tell them to come back in half an hour, because I’ve not quite finished what I’ve got to say. I’ll also quite happily discuss the genius of Ted Lasso, the best crisps and the best dupes for expensive perfume, make up and skincare, but that’s another story.

I also love talking and listening to young children. Hearing their wee voices express how they’re feeling and pronouncing words wrong, creating new family phrases that will be used for years – in our house, speed bumps have been bumpy feet for a long time. It’s a joy to watch them communicate with their peers through words, phrases, facial expressions and gestures, talking in a language that we might not quite understand but which is as clear as day to them.

As parents, we spend hours talking to our children, encouraging them to make noises and form sounds that will become the words that will carry them through their lives, and there’s no greater joy than hearing them talk for the first time. Speech and language development are milestones in a child’s life. For children born during and just after the pandemic, however, these milestones are not being met in the same way as they have in the past.

EYS worked with the Royal College of Speech and Language therapists following the pandemic, in recognition of the impact that Covid has had. Part of this collaboration involved a survey which found that 89% of practitioners who responded said that they had seen an increase or a significant increase in complexity of needs and delays to do with speech and language development since the pandemic. We know that there are more children presenting with additional support needs within our schools and our ELC settings – indeed, a recent report from the Accounts Commission and the Auditor General, published in February 2025, found that there has been an utterly staggering 768% growth in pupils recorded as receiving additional support for learning (ASL) since the ASL Act was introduced in 2004. And no, that’s not a typo. We’re looking at nearly an 800% increase in just over 20 years.

The announcement in this year’s Programme for Government around the publication of an Early Years Speech and Language action plan by autumn 2025, setting out practical steps to support children’s early speech and language development, was very welcome by our organisation. EYS is part of the strategic working groups supporting the development of this new plan, as we know that early intervention is always preferable, including via professional learning and training support for ELC staff to help identify issues and to support parents/carers with advice and guidance too. This is something we’re continuing to focus our policy work on at the moment – both in terms of our manifesto for the 2026 Scottish Parliament elections, as well as engaging directly with members to ensure we fully understand ASL needs in the early years.

As always, these areas of work will be founded upon the voices and experiences of our members, children and families. There continue to be a number of challenges within ELC which prospective politicians have a duty to consider and act upon, in order to ensure that Scotland really is the best place in the world to grow up. We’re pleased to see that the Government recognise the crisis around speech and language and look forward to working alongside colleagues across the sector in order to achieve what needs to be done for our youngest children. Covid sometimes seems like a distant memory, but the impact of not having been able to chat to friends and family, in person, still remains – whether we like it or not. Encourage your wee ones to chatter to their hearts content. Let’s keep talking.