Thank you very much, Llywydd. It's my pleasure to introduce this short debate this afternoon on the topic of early language development, and I have agreed for Mark Isherwood to have some of my time so that he can make a contribution to the debate. In the debate, I want to highlight how early language development is crucially important to the development of children in the early years, and in preparing them for school, of course.

Now, skills make a core contribution to a child's ability to deliver his or her potential in an educational sense, and the social mobility of that child and their life opportunities. Communication skills are crucially and fundamentally important in that regard, and they include not only expressive skills—our ability to get other people to understand us—but also our receptive skills. That is, our ability to understand.

A minority of children do have a disability that will mean that they won't develop the expected language skills for their age, but most children can achieve that by having the right assistance and support. Research demonstrates that there's a strong link between poverty and delays in language development, and there is an ongoing gap between the language skills of those from the poorest backgrounds and their peers from more affluent backgrounds. So, encouraging early language development is crucially important to close that attainment gap and to improve the life chances of our poorest children.

It's very timely that we are discussing this issue today, following the publication of the plan for the early years workforce and play by the Welsh Government—at last, if I may say so, because it was published in December, and you will recall that I and others have been calling for its publication as it has been in draft form for around two years, I understand. But it has now been published. It's also timely in light of the announcement by the Cabinet Secretary for Education, of course, on the campaign Take Time to Talk, Listen and Play in January.

First of all, I want to present the evidence as to why this issue is so important.