RNZ Interview by Ruth Hill 30 October 2020
Research by Auckland University oral language expert Jannie van Hees found 80 percent of new entrants in some low-decile schools were up to one-and-a-half years behind in terms of their speech.
Dr van Hees said a child who has grown up in a language-rich environment usually has a working vocabulary of 5000 to 6000 words - but many of these five-year-olds had less than half that.
"If kids have got limited language capability they are stuck, and they are stuck for their whole lives.
