Supporting Children's Language Development at Scale

Prof. Charles Hulme

Language is a vital foundation for learning, social development, and education.
Children with language difficulties are at significantly higher risk of poor educational outcomes, especially in literacy and numeracy.

Professor Charles Hulme and his research team have developed evidence-based interventions that improve children’s language skills. The most well-known of these is the Nuffield Early Language Intervention (NELI).

What is NELI?

NELI is a structured programme designed to support children’s early language development. It is supported by:

Online professional training for school staff
Automated language assessments using LanguageScreen

These tools have enabled NELI to be delivered at scale in mainstream UK schools.

National Impact

Due to the strong evidence base for NELI, the UK Department for Education (DfE) funded its national rollout in 2020. Since then:

The DfE has renewed the contract annually for five years
In September 2025, a new four-year contract was signed to continue delivery
NELI has reached approximately 11,000 schools
Over 40,000 school staff have been trained
LanguageScreen assessments have been completed for around 750,000 children

"Time and time again, the Nuffield Early Language Intervention has proven its effectiveness in boosting young children’s language development.

It’s hard to overestimate how exciting it is to see a program have a significant positive impact on a national scale. This gives early years educators a program that they can trust to help children needing additional support with their communication and language skills, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds."

Professor Becky Francis CBE,

Chief Executive of the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF)

Global Reach

This work is a rare example of basic research being successfully translated into a scalable, real-world solution. The intervention, training materials, and assessments are now used internationally, including in:

The United States
The Netherlands
Paraguay
Australia
New Zealand
The United Arab Emirates
Luxembourg

"After NELI, children are more confident, ambitious in their vocabulary choices and ready to continue great progress in year 1. Another benefit of delivering NELI is we have found that it has empowered our Teacher Assistants. They have real ownership of the programme and the children’s progress.

The impact we see each year is outstanding and clear progress is made by every child who participates in the NELI Programme. We couldn’t have a better tool than NELI to support the children who need that little extra support."