Pen Green Centre for children and their families

Hungry Little Minds – ideas and activities for children from birth to five

New national campaign launched with ideas to support children’s learning at home, or as part of everyday activities like catching the bus or doing the shopping.

Improving early communication, language and literacy development is a key priority for the government. Some of the poorest children in the UK start school months behind their peers and the gap can grow through their school years. Children with poor vocabulary skills at age five may be up to twice as likely to be unemployed in their 30s.

As a result, the Department for Education has launched Hungry Little Minds – a new campaign that encourages parents and carers to adopt positive activities and behaviours to boost children’s communication, language and literacy development.

The three-year campaign, which launches today, aims to help parents understand that they have a massive impact on their child’s learning. Reading, playing and chatting with them are simple things they can do to help them develop, even when they are too young to say much back. Parents can access tips and activities from and also search for activities in their area using a new postcode finder service.