Findings and Publications

Key findings of the main intervention project as well as the additional feasibility study are briefly summarised below. More details are available in the project's public report and the executive summary (see downloadable PDF files).

Main Intervention Project

The outcomes from our main study demonstrate improvements in taught vocabulary but no generalisation to broader language skills, our primary outcome measures, immediately after the intervention. Following a 6 month delay the intervention group still showed an advantage on taught vocabulary but no other differences were statistically significant. In contrast the waiting control group appeared to outperform the intervention group on one of our measures of expressive vocabulary and spelling 6 months after the intervention. Please see the public report for a discussion of these findings.

These and additional findings have also been written up for publication in relevant journals. Updates and links to published papers will be added as soon as they are available.

Additional Feasibility Study

The intervention group appeared to show an advantage over the waiting control group on measures of oral language immediately after the intervention including listening comprehension and a standardised measure of expressive vocabulary. The control group made more progress on measures of expressive grammar and early word reading. However, the results are descriptive and the sample size is very small, therefore the result must be interpreted with caution.

Results from the focus groups and interviews indicate that TAs were generally positive about the programme. However, TAs commented that the programme was not suited for children with the lowest language skills and that some of the activities were too hard. They also found it difficult to fit the intervention into the school timetable. Nonetheless, TAs noted that the children who received the intervention had benefitted particularly in terms of confidence. Please see the public report for a discussion of these findings.