New family hubs will help tackle pandemic induced speech and language delays
Council officer says lots of children are behind in their language development due to the pandemic
By Sarah Ward
The new family hubs being set up in North Northamptonshire will have a focus on helping children whose speech has been impacted by the pandemic.
Three new hubs, starting with a new centre at the Penrith Children’s Centre in Wellingborough, will open after North Northamptonshire Council received £4m government funding and there will be focus on helping bridge the gap which has developed with many under 5s behind where they should be in terms of speech and language.
At a meeting last week the consultant in charge of setting up the hubs Judy Matthews explained:
“The issue is at the moment many of our babies that were born in in the pandemic are now our two and three year olds and we are seeing them come in to nursery with speech and language delays and most of that is down to the fact they they didn't come out of their houses, they didn't interact with our children, the parents didn’t get the right support and so we are seeing the impact of that now.”