Language@Leeds webinar: Maximising the benefit of early years education for children’s language development

Language@Leeds Webinar

Language@Leeds invites you to join our webinar in November 2025 titled "Maximising the benefit of early years education for children’s language development", delivered by Prof Cat Davies

Presentation summary:

The Covid-19 pandemic adversely affected early childhood development across multiple domains, including physical, cognitive, socioemotional, and language skills. UK data indicates that a greater proportion of under-fives did not meet their expected milestones between 2020 and 2022, compared to pre-pandemic levels.

These impacts were especially pronounced among the least privileged in society, with children from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds and those with additional needs falling further behind their peers. Despite targeted fiscal and pedagogical efforts to support educational recovery since the pandemic, there has been limited progress in closing these gaps.

Early years education has significant power to level the playing field. This talk will review the progress of the national expansion of childcare entitlements. We will discuss recommendations for the rollout to ensure that families can make maximum benefit of quality early years education.

About the speaker:

Cat Davies is a Professor of Language Development at the University of Leeds. Her research focuses on children’s early language, literacy, and education. She investigates the effects of the COVID-19 lockdowns on development through several ESRC-funded projects including Social Distancing and Development, the Impact of Covid on Key Learning and Education, and Born in Covid Year - Core Lockdown Effects. Cat works with psychologists, educationalists, teacher practitioners, and government policymakers to use research findings to improve policy and practice, and to boost educational outcomes for children from diverse backgrounds.

Webinar format:

The session will start with a 20-minute presentation by Prof Cat Davies followed by 10 minutes for questions and answers.

The webinar will be chaired by Prof Cécile De Cat, Professor of Linguistics at the University of Leeds.

Please follow this link to register.

For any queries, please contact [email protected]