How a project boosts language skills

Project
Talk Boost

Funding
The basic cost of establishing the programme in a school is £1,600, which includes staff training, a resource pack and follow-up support. Talk Boost is part of the A Chance to Talk project, funded by the Man Group, Charitable Trust, Shine (Support and Help in Education), BT, the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, and The Communication Trust

Purpose
To reduce language delay in children

Background
“In many parts of the country, particularly areas of social deprivation, large numbers of children are going into school with language delay,” says Wendy Lee, professional director at The Communication Trust.

People often assume children will catch up but that is not always the case, which is why the Communication Trust and communication charity I Can developed Talk Boost.

Action
The 10-week programme for four- to seven-year-olds takes children with poor language skills out of class to work in small groups with a specially trained teaching assistant for three sessions a week. Activities are linked to classroom sessions and information and techniques shared with teachers to ensure it is not simply a “satellite” intervention, says Lee.

“We’ve identified five parts of language for children of this age – listening, vocabulary, sentences, storytelling, and conversation – to help both the adults and children,” she says. “Another element is children being aware of what they do and don’t know, which means they will ask for help when they don’t understand.”

The scheme has been replicated in Gravesend, Kirby, Rochdale and Whitby as part of the wider A Chance to Talk programme with eight schools taking part in each area.

Outcome
During the pilot phase 137 children were assessed before and after the intervention. Seventy-eight per cent were below average for their age for information skills, 81 per cent were below average for grammar and 90 per cent were below average for storytelling. Children with English as a first language who had been through Talk Boost made on average 18 months of progress with some children making two to three years’ progress. There were also significant improvements for those with English as an additional language.

An evaluation of 350 children taking part in the national launch of the scheme from September 2010 to July 2011 echoed these findings. A final report is due out in September.