On 30 January, the Manifesto Think Language First! was launched at The House of Lords in London. The Manifesto is written by an international multidisciplinary team of scholars and stakeholders, with the main objective of raising awareness and asking for further support for the language needs of children and young people. Mai Fleetwood-Bird, lecturer at Erasmus School of Law, was present at the launch and reflects on this special visit.
The Manifesto was created at a scientific and stakeholders’ meeting in Leiden, the Netherlands, in 2021. It posits that language is the gateway to lifelong well-being and opportunities, therefore ‘Language First’. Fleetwood-Bird was involved in the creation of the Manifesto and was present at the launch at The House of Lords.Fleetwood-Bird: “My background is that of speech- and language therapist (SLT), and I have been working as an SLT for twenty-one years with young people with speech and language difficulties in Rotterdam. Now, I work at Erasmus School of Law, combining my knowledge of SLT and criminal law in my research. My research topic, the language skills of young suspects and the implications for the youth justice system, was the reason I was present at the international conference in Leiden in 2021. The theme of this conference was Language Development, Diagnosis and Assessment in School Ages 6-16: Next Steps in Research and Practice.”
Manifesto
The Manifesto explains that even though research shows that good language skills are one of the strongest predictors of quality of life and well-being, the needs of school-aged children often remain unidentified. Severe language difficulties are often associated with behavioural problems, school drop-out or exclusion, mental health problems, unemployment and even criminality. For example, in the UK, 60% of young offenders have a language impairment. In the Netherlands, percentages are similar. In addition, unsupported language difficulties result in staggering costs for health and justice systems. Failure to improve the vulnerable language skills of a current UK cohort of 3-year-olds (14%) has been estimated to cost society £330M later in life. Language needs are often overlooked and constitute an ‘invisible challenge’.
Launch in the House of Lords
At the launch there was a round table with members of the parliament, professionals and stakeholders from the education, health and youth justice systems. Attendees included: Lord Boateng, Professor Joao Costa, Linguist and Minister of Education from Portugal, Diz Minnitt, Head of Youth Justice and Support Service, Sharon Gray, Youth Justice Board, Justice Renate Winter, President of UN Committee of the Rights of the Child and Lana Petö Kujundžić, President of council for juveniles on High Criminal Court of Republic Croatia.
Fleetwood-Bird reflects on the launch: “It was special and inspiring to sit around the table with an international gathering of scientists, practitioners, politicians and members of the House of Lords, in a beautiful setting. It was good to see that unfamiliarity with language problems and their impact on children was being dispelled in this way, and that language is important and all-encompassing. Lord Boateng put it beautifully when he said, "All we do here, all day is language".”
According to Fleetwood-Bird it is crucial to bring this issue to the forefront of debate which will result in policy change. Hence, the launch at the House of Lords, which was very successful. The Manifesto is intended to be presented to the government in other countries, including the Netherlands.
The full text of the Manifesto with further explanatory text can be found here.
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