This is one of a number of projects being funded this year to
support very young children with emerging additional needs.
Education Minister said:
“Language Launchpad will provide parents, organisations and
providers who support young children, with access to free
evidence-based, universal training.
“Speech, language and communication needs consistently feature in
the top three SEN categories for pre-school and primary school
children. The rollout of this new initiative will result in
better outcomes for children who require additional support.”
The project is funded as part of the £25m package of measures for
Early Learning and Childcare (ELC) provision.
The Minister continued:
“Language Launchpad, which is supported by the Royal College of
Speech and Language Therapists working alongside community
partnership Help Kids Talk, will engage directly with
organisations who have contact with very young children to better
support speech, language and communication development in the
early years.”
Ruth Sedgewick, Northern Ireland Head of the Royal College of
Speech and Language Therapists (RCSLT) said:
“Speech, language and communication are fundamental to all
children, and we know the importance of accessing support as
early in life as possible. The impacts of unaddressed
communication needs are serious and life-long. We also know that
the challenges are growing, as our recent Early Years report
highlighted an increase in both numbers and complexity of need in
Northern Ireland. We welcome this funding from the Department of
Education which will allow us to begin scaling up the brilliant
work of Help Kids Talk. It will allow many more professionals and
parents across Northern Ireland to access the specialist clinical
expertise behind this training, so that they can give tried and
tested support to children in their care.”
The Language Launchpad project commenced in September 2024 and
will run until March 2025.
Notes to editors:
- Funding of £65k will be allocated to this project from the
early learning and childcare £25m funding package.
