Early Language Development: Needs, provision, and ...

1 Early Language Development: needs , provision, and intervention for preschool children from socio- economically disadvantaged backgrounds A Report for the Education Endowment Foundation October 2017. Law, J. Charlton, J. Dockrell, J. Gascoigne, M. McKean, C. Theakston, A. Contact: James Law PhD. Professor of Speech and Language Science Newcastle University E: Early Language Development: needs , provision and intervention for preschool children from socio-economically disadvantage backgrounds Law, Charlton, Dockrell, Gascoigne, McKean and Theakston Contents The project team .. iv Executive summary .. vi Page | ii Glossary .. viii Chapter 1: Introduction.

2 1. Chapter 2: Typical Language development .. 3. Overview .. 4. Theoretical approach and models of learning .. 4. Measuring Language and communicative development .. 4. Early vocalizations .. 5. Communicative gestures .. 6. Word learning .. 7. Early combinatorial (multiword) 9. Complex sentences .. 10. Role of other cognitive developments on oral Language .. 11. Pre-literacy skills .. 12. Summary .. 14. Chapter 3: Models of identification .. 15. Estimating the level of need .. 15. Stability of Language 17. Level of need in children living with social disadvantage .. 19. Estimating the current level of need in England .. 20.

3 Methods for identifying children in need of additional support .. 25. A continuum of response to a continuum of need .. 25. Early Language Development: needs , provision and intervention for preschool children from socio-economically disadvantage backgrounds Law, Charlton, Dockrell, Gascoigne, McKean and Theakston Chapter 4: Effective approaches and interventions .. 28. Introduction .. 298. 29. Different models of service delivery .. 298. How robust is the evidence?.. 41 Page | iii The evidence template .. 411. Papers identified for full data extraction .. 42. Findings .. 43. Focus of the interventions .. 44. Programmes and practices.

4 44. Who delivers the intervention? .. 45. Location of the 45. Intensity and duration .. 45. Effect 46. The most promising interventions .. 477. Summary .. 48. Chapter 5: Mapping current provision .. 50. Introduction .. 51. 52. Findings .. 53. Chapter 6: Conclusions and recommendations .. 55. Typical Language development (Chapter 2) .. 55. Models of identification (Chapter 3).. 55. Effective approaches and interventions (Chapter 4) .. 57. Developing best practice in service delivery (Chapter 5) .. 58. References .. 59. Appendix A: Included interventions (by first author) .. 69. Appendix B: Summary tables of included interventions.

5 70. Appendix C: Tables of interventions and outcomes .. 1577. Table C1: Vocabulary .. 1577. Table C2: Expression .. 160. Table C3: Expression and comprehension .. 161. Table C4: Preliteracy and phonology .. 1633. Appendix D: Typical development of oral Language from birth to five years .. 1644. Appendix E: Local authority case 1666. Case study 1: London borough Hackney .. 1666. Case study 2: District within a South-East shire county 1766. Case Study 3: District within shire county Yorkshire and Humber Scarborough .. 1866. Early Language Development: needs , provision and intervention for preschool children from socio-economically disadvantage backgrounds Law, Charlton, Dockrell, Gascoigne, McKean and Theakston Case study 4: Metropolitan borough in the North West Salford.

6 1933. Case study 5: Unitary authority in the East of England Peterborough .. 1999. Page | iv Early Language Development: needs , provision and intervention for preschool children from socio-economically disadvantage backgrounds Law, Charlton, Dockrell, Gascoigne, McKean and Theakston The project team James Law Professor of Speech and Language Science, Newcastle University Page | v Anna Theakston Professor of Developmental Psychology and Co-Director ESRC LuCiD Centre, University of Manchester Marie Gascoigne Director the Better communication CIC. Julie Dockrell Professor of Psychology and Special Education, Institute of Education/UCL London Cristina McKean Senior Lecturer in Speech and Language Therapy, Newcastle University Jenna Charlton Research Associate, Newcastle university Early Language Development.

7 needs , provision and intervention for preschool children from socio-economically disadvantage backgrounds Law, Charlton, Dockrell, Gascoigne, McKean and Theakston Executive summary This review has been commissioned by the Education Endowment Foundation and Public Health England to identify priorities for improving practice in the support and management of children with delays in Early Language development between birth and five years (72 months). In addition, it has the specific objectives of highlighting interventions that have the greatest potential to improve children's life Page | vi chances, reduce inequalities in outcomes, and potentially inform further rounds of research funded by the EEF.

8 The review starts with an overview of the most recent findings associated with our understanding of Early Language and preliteracy development. It goes on to look at prevalence and at the proportion of children not attaining the appropriate levels of attainment in the Early years. It then turns to interventions, their efficacy and effectiveness, and contextual factors that affect their implementation. Finally, we move on to the way that services are delivered on the ground in England and highlight the profile of five local authorities, the services they deliver, and factors affecting that delivery. The review ends with a summary of the main findings and recommendations for which interventions could usefully be taken forward.

9 In the Appendices we provide summaries of the interventions identified and a table of interventions and their outcomes and then provide some additional details about the five case studies identified in Chapter 5. Early Language development Early Language development generally progresses through a series of distinct but overlapping stages and the majority of children follow similar patterns in a given Language , albeit at different rates. Although Language acquisition is a very robust process there is evidence that the rate at which children develop Language is sensitive to the amount of input they receive from the adults around them.

10 The quality of input that children receive is likely to be more important than the quantity. Children's gestures, such as pointing, are important precursors of subsequent Language development. There are a number of well-developed measures of Early Language development. Some directly test receptive and expressive Language skills, other rely on parental report. Although children often have different patterns of interaction as they start to speak (some use lots of words, others combine words very Early on in their development), broadly speaking children need to be using between 50 and 100 words before they start putting words together into word combinations or proto-sentences.