The EEF with the Stronger Practice Hubs will evaluate the effectiveness of eight programmes designed to support children’s early language and numeracy development.
The new projects, co-funded with the Department for Education’s Stronger Practice Hubs, are a major part of the EEF’s increased focus on support for the early years sector. The EEF said all the projects will be independently evaluated, 'representing a significant contribution to the early years evidence base.'
The EEF is working as the DfE's evidence partner for the Stronger Practice Hubs, which are being overseen and delivered by the National Children’s Bureau (NCB).
The new projects include the first ever EEF-funded evaluation involving childminders.
The pilot of Communication Friendly Home-Based Settings, developed by Elklan, aims to give childminders training to improve their provision and practice to support children’s language skills. This project is being evaluated by a team based at the University of York.
A version of this programme, Communication Friendly Settings, will also be tested across nurseries. The delivery organisation, Elklan, will train two staff to train other staff in their setting to support children’s speech, language and communication skills. The evaluation, led by a team from the University of York, will look at the impact of the programme on three- and four-year-olds.
The EEF has confirmed that none of the projects require any of the settings or participants to have taken part in previous training or activities, and all the training is offered free for every project.
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.’
Early language development projects
Five more of the new projects will focus on early language development:
- 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.
- 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.
- 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 extra teaching to support talking and understanding words. Each session includes language activities supported by songs and storybooks.
- 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.
- 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.
Jane Harris Speech and Language UK Chief Executive said, 'We are delighted to be partnering with Education Endowment Foundation to evaluate the impact of our Early Talk Boost programme. 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.'
Numeracy and executive function trial
The ONE Project, delivered by 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.
These tasks last five to ten minutes and are designed to develop pre-schoolers’ numeracy skills. Researchers believe that core attention and flexible thinking skills, known as executive function, develop over childhood and support early mathematical learning.
The delivery team will work with early years educators to gradually embed executive function challenge into maths learning through fun activities co-developed with practitioners. Three activities are delivered each week over the course of the 12-week programme, and can be woven into small group activities, outdoor, and free play. Initial evidence evaluation was supported by the Nuffield Foundation. The independent evaluation will be conducted by RAND Europe.
More information
- Early years settings can explore the programmes available in their area and express interest in taking part here