Give your children good speaking skills ... talk to them over family meals

Children who sit for hours in front of the TV or playing computer games will not learn to speak or listen properly and put their education at risk, the study warns.

John Bercow, the Conservative MP who led the independent Government review, warned parents that they were wrong to assume all babies and toddlers would talk "when they are ready".

Mr Bercow told the Evening Standard that children who lacked good communication skills struggled to make friends and could fall behind in class.

He said: "Communication is a life skill that has to be taught, honed and nurtured. It is not something that will just happen."

The MP for Buckingham, who Gordon Brown invited to take charge of the review, stressed he was not backing a "nanny state" solution.

But he said the Government should advise parents that regular conversations over the dinner table or on family trips could help children develop.

"It is a question of balance," Mr Bercow said.

"If a child just sits in front of the television or a computer game for hours and doesn't have the benefit of shared family experiences, and doesn't have those conversations, that is a missed opportunity.

"A child's communication skills are going to take longer to develop if they don't experience conversation in the home. This is not about the nanny state. We appreciate that the media, television and the internet can be boons to the education of children.

"We also recognise that if a child is subject to an unrelenting diet of television, the use of DVDs, computer games and so on, it is denied the opportunity of interaction with other people in the family."

By the age of four, children from the poorest homes will have heard just 13 million words spoken in their lives, while those from more affluent families will have heard 45 million words, according to Government research.

Mr Bercow suggested "hundreds of thousands" of children in England suffer some difficulty with speaking skills, while more than 45,000 experience "severe" or "significant" problems.

He said state education and the NHS have not done enough to help, "severely hampering children's ability to learn and contribute to society".

Ministers promised a £52 million drive to tackle problems, including £40 million to train nursery school staff to help toddlers develop better speaking and listening skills.