The evaluation programmes, co-funded with the Department for Education’s Stronger Practice Hubs, will see 733 nurseries and early years settings across England will take part in eight new evaluations.
The pilot of Communication Friendly Home-Based Settings, developed by delivery organisation Elklan, will give childminders training to improve their provision and practice to support their children’s language skills. This project is being evaluated by a team based at the University of York.
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How I Got Here: Rebecca de Vyea, specialist speech therapist
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Test and learn approach improves outcomes in Southend
A version of this programme, Communication Friendly Settings, will also be tested across nurseries.
It will see Elklan support two staff to train other staff in their setting to support children’s speech, language and communication skills. The evaluation, also led by a team from the University of York, will look at the impact of the programme on three- and four-year-olds.
Five more of today’s new projects will focus on early language development:
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Early Years Conversation Project (EYCP): Delivered by Sheringham Nursery School and Children’s Centre, the programme aims to develop staff’s interactions with children to improve the language skills of two- and three-year-olds. The evaluation will be led by Durham University.
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Concept Cat: This approach focuses on teaching vocabulary and supporting staff to teach high frequency concepts such as most, large and near. The programme was developed by the speech and language therapists behind Word Aware and is being delivered in collaboration with Better Communication CIC. RAND Europe will assess the impact of the programme on three- and four-year-olds.
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Early Talk Boost: Designed and delivered by Speech and Language UK, this nine-week programme is targeted at three- and four-year-olds identified as needing additional teaching to support talking and understanding words. Each session includes language activities supported by songs and storybooks.
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Talk with Tales with Children (TWiTCH): Developed by Sheffield Hallam University, this approach supports early years staff to optimise their daily story time and provide discussion-based activities to promote children’s language development. A team led by Durham University will evaluate the pilot of this programme.
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Tales Toolkit: This programme supports staff to implement weekly oral storytelling and story scribing sessions using visual resources that promote a child’s understanding of how to structure a story. The programme will be delivered through a collaboration of Tales Toolkit with Goldsmiths University and aims to support children’s early language and social development. The Institute of Employment Studies (IES) will evaluate the pilot study of this approach.
Meanwhile, The ONE Project, delivered by staff at the University of Oxford and University of Sheffield, trains early years staff to engage groups of young children in play-based activities to support early numeracy.
An independent evaluation of the 12-week project will be conducted by RAND Europe.
Professor Becky Francis, chief executive of the EEF, said: “A vital part of supporting early years professionals in their work is broadening their access to high-quality, well evidenced programmes that can bolster their practice and boost young children’s development.
“It is our hope that the research projects announced today serve to increase support and drive innovation in this crucial area of our education system.
“Nurseries that sign-up to take part in one of our evaluations will be making a vital contribution to education research, as well as getting the chance to access high-potential programmes for their children at a subsidised rate.”
Responding to the announcement, Jane Harris, chief executive of delivery partner Speech and Language UK, added: “At least 1.7 million children are behind with talking and understanding words and the early years workforce must be given the right skills, training, and tools to support children in pre-school and early primary years. That’s why it’s important that our Early Talk Boost programme is backed by robust, independent evaluation to learn about how we can help children develop speech and language skills they can use throughout their lives.”
