Early Language Intervention: from research to practice Professors Maggie Snowling and Charles Hulme St John’s College, University of Oxford

By the time children enter school we expect them to Oral Language Skills Vital Foundation for Literacy and more broadly educational Attainment By the time children enter school we expect them to listen understand express themselves communicate in an age-appropriate way

Research to practice Oral language is the critical foundation for development of literacy, numeracy and formal education more generally Duff, Reen, Plunkett, and Nation, 2015; Law, Todd, Clark, Mroz, & Carr, 2013; Roulstone, Law, Rush, Clegg & Peters, 2011

Oral language is the precursor of phonological awareness Research to practice Oral language is the precursor of phonological awareness Hulme, Nash, Gooch, Lervåg & Snowling, 2015; Muter, Hulme, Snowling & Stevenson, 2004; NICHD Early Child Care Research Network, 2005; Storch & Whitehouse, 2002

Research to practice Children entering school with poor oral language are at risk of educational underachievement and socio-emotional needs Clegg, Hollis, Mawhood, & Rutter, 2005; Muter et al., 2004

Research to practice 50% of children starting school in disadvantaged areas will have speech, language and communication needs Law, McBean and Rush 2011

Research to practice Oral language interventions have significant potential for improving educational outcomes

Nuffield Early Language Intervention Designed for children with delayed oral language skills Groups of 5 3 x 30 min group and 2 x 15 min individual sessions a week 20 week programme.

Nuffield Early Language Intervention Delivered by trained TAs TAs receive 2-day training programme and post- training webinars and e-mails during implementation High-quality teaching resources.

Programme overview 1. Listening skills

Programme overview 2. Vocabulary

Programme overview 3. Narrative

2nd term 4. Letter sound knowledge and phonological awareness Programme overview Letters and sounds PA Activities Segmenting Blending 2nd term 4. Letter sound knowledge and phonological awareness

Topics My body Things we wear People who help us Growing Journeys Time

Session structure Session structure Time Introduction – greeting, listening rules and game 3 Reinforce vocabulary learning 5 New vocabulary Narrative 10 Plenary 2

Research: trials and findings

First study University of York 30-week intervention given to children who showed weaknesses in oral language (10 wk nursery) Evaluated by a robust randomised controlled trial Very positive outcomes for children.

Second, wider field trial Replicate and extend the work of original trial Less hands-on support 34 schools and nurseries Funded by Education Endowment Foundation Available in their toolkit of effective interventions.

Research Children made significant gains in listening skills vocabulary knowledge grammatical ability narrative skills letter-sound knowledge, phoneme awareness and spelling listening and reading comprehension.

Improve oral language Improve reading comprehension!

Research Conclusion NELI provides strong foundation for literacy development and learning in the classroom

Excellent implementation is of key importance. BUT there is no quick fix: Interventions need to be of high quality Excellent implementation is of key importance.

EEF Nuffield Oxford University OUP Elklan

January 2018 project 240 reception classes 600 children 8 areas of deprivation Test level of post-course support required Test an effective but sustainable model that is commercially viable and good value for money.

September 2018 project 200 reception classes 500 children 11 areas of deprivation Test level of post-course support required Test an effective but sustainable model that is commercially viable and good value for money.

EEF Guidance report PREPARING FOR LITERACY Improving communication, language and literacy in the early years

‘Existing research underlines the importance of providing specific training to the adults providing small-group or one-to-one support; high quality training is a common feature of almost all effective small-group interventions’ NELI intervention schools will receive this training FREE!

Evidence-based interventions ‘One intervention that has been rigorously evaluated, with positive findings, is the Nuffield Early Language Intervention (NELI).’

Milestone Date Screening of all children in all classrooms using ATLAS app by teacher or TA 24th Sept-Oct 5th 2018

Automated Test of Language AbilitieS ATLAS Automated Test of Language AbilitieS

Four subtests running on a tablet Expressive Vocabulary Listening Comprehension Receptive Sentence Repetition Four subtests running on a tablet ATLAS assesses children’s language (speaking and listening) abilities Scores from the four subtests are combined to give an estimate of a child’s overall language ability For each item of each subtest, children are scored as correct or incorrect No discontinuation rules, all children attempt all items in each subtest Suitable to test children between 3-8yrs old

Expressive Vocabulary For each subtest, the instructions are given by the app, and are also available on the screen for the tester This task tests the child’s ability to name 24 pictures of objects Children are shown each picture and asked to name it “ I am going to show you some pictures on the screen. I want to find out how many you know. Tell me what each picture is. Let’s START!”

Receptive Vocabulary “WHEEL” Assesses a child’s ability to understand spoken words The child listens to a word, then chooses the picture (by pressing it on the screen) 31 items “ I am going to show you some pictures on the screen. The pictures will be in threes. While you look at the pictures you will hear a word. You have to point to the picture which matches the word. If you need to hear the word again, ask and we can play it again. Listen carefully to the first word” The correct answer A phonological distractor (which sounds similar, or rhymes with the target word) A semantic distractor (which has a similar meaning to the target word)

Listening Comprehension Assesses ability to understand short stories Children listen to 2 short stories, each of which is followed by 6 questions “I am going to play you two stories. At the end of each story, I will ask you some questions about it. Listen carefully because I want to find out how much you can remember. “

Listening Comprehension STORY 2 - A Day Out: Tilly went to the bus stop with her granny. She was excited. Today they were going to see the lions and the monkeys. The sun was shining as the bus arrived. The ride was bumpy, but Tilly did not mind. Soon they would watch the penguins being fed. Who did Tilly go out with today? Where did Tilly go? How did Tilly get there? What was the bus ride like? How do you think Tilly felt when it was time to go home? Can you name TWO animals she saw at the zoo?

Sentence Repetition “JO LIKES LEGO” Assesses ability to repeat sentences (a test of their grammatical skills) The child listens to 12 sentences, and repeats each back to the tester “I am going to play you some sentences. After each sentence I want you to repeat it back to me. I want to find out how much you can remember. Listen carefully to the first one, and then repeat exactly what you hear”

Milestone Date Screening of all children in all classrooms using ATLAS app by teacher or TA 24th Sept-Oct 5th 2018 5 children in each classroom individually assessed (Oxford Research Team). 1 x day Oct 15th – Nov 2nd 2018 Classrooms assigned to experimental or control groups (Oxford Research Team November 2018

Milestone Date Elklan Tutors provide 2 days training to Teaching Assistants (TAs) in intervention classrooms. Teachers also attend for first half day Nov 26th-30th 2018 TAs deliver NELI over 20 weeks Spring and summer terms 2019 Elklan Tutors provide support for TAs Post assessment of children (Oxford Research Team) July 2019

Support Milestones – One hour webinars with TAs Week 3 of implementation Week 6 of implementation Week 12/13 of implementation Week 21, post implementation

Support Milestones Week 9 - Half-day face-to-face workshop to re-cap the implementation of weeks 11-20 of the programme Closed Facebook group 1 x e-mail per week per TA to their Elklan tutor

School’s commitment Purchase NELI package (£280 excl VAT + £3.85 p&p) Disseminate and collect research consent forms Teacher to screen children in reception class Enable ORT to carry out assessment in school 2 days Prioritise TA time to attend all training and support opportunities Prioritise TA time to deliver programme: 3 x 30 min group sessions 2 x 15 min individual sessions Time to prepare for each session

Difference between intervention and control schools

Screening and assessment Intervention schools Control schools Sept - Oct 2018 Screening and assessment Mid-Nov You will be told whether your school has been randomly assigned to the intervention or control group Buy resource pack £280 Nov 2018 TA trained Jan - July 2019 Implement programme

Screening and assessment Experimental group Control July 2019 Screening and assessment £1000 given. Can be used to fund NELI resource pack and TA training From Sept 2019 Purchase resources + training and implement programme

Key aims Improve oral language skills of children with SLCN Prove that it works! Please post contracts to be involved to Alex Hall (see MOU for details) or e-mail alexelklan@gmail.com