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

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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

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

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

8. 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.

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

10. Programme overview
1. Listening skills

11. Programme overview
2. Vocabulary

12. Programme overview
3. Narrative

13. 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

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

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

16. Research:
trials and findings

17. 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.

18. 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.

19. 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.

20. Improve oral language Improve reading comprehension!

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

22. 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.

23. EEF
Nuffield
Oxford University
OUP
Elklan

24. 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.

25. 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.

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

27. ‘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!

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

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

30. Automated Test of Language AbilitieS
ATLAS
Automated Test of Language AbilitieS

31. 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

32. 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!”

33. 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)

34. 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. “

35. 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?

36. 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”

37. 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

38. 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
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

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

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

41. 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

42. Difference between intervention and control schools

43. 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

44. 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

45. 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