B god, you're going to make me back up a DM article, I feel dirty...
Yes, sadly, several. I used to be a reading buddy at a school in one of the most deprived electoral wards in sw England. My volunteer role was to listen to children reading on a one to one basis for 20 mins a week, one child per school year, aged between 7-9. There were 15 volunteers. The children's needs varied from being almost totally unable to read, to being perfectly capable but lacking in other major social areas.
One of the girls already had rotten adult teeth, she was 9 and still had a baby bottle to drink out of. She only drank panda pop. She had no toys to speak of, but each of her 5 siblings had their own ps2. She had no books, but did want some. She was the least bad example, sadly she as quite capable in other ways, she basically looked after her little bother. She was taken into care 3 times in the year that I knew her.
There were a number of much sadder stories, & one 7 year old still in nappies, although he was embarrassed by this. He did appear to be continent, but his mum told the school he couldn't be trusted. He told me his mum never talked to him, but did talk to his sister a bit, the rest of the time she had her headphones in. He loved our sessions, he had never had anyone read to or with him before. He wasnt allowed books or toys because they made a mess. His attendance rate was 45%.
I could go on, bit it makes me sad to remember.