The first NELI Pre-school trial has been a success – what’s significant about the findings?
We ran a large, well-powered efficacy trial with 65 nurseries, which found that children made the equivalent of three months’ additional progress in their oral language development. This is clear evidence that a language enrichment programme delivered by staff in a nursery setting can make a significant, meaningful difference to children’s vocabulary acquisition, their understanding of narrative and their ability to retell stories. This is not only great for their language skills and confidence, it helps set them up for Reception and lifelong learning.
What’s also really exciting is how optimistic nurseries are about delivering the programme. The interactive online training and support model has been incredibly well-received, with settings posting photos and ideas to extend learning and embed elements of the programme into continuous provision. Practitioners find the LanguageScreen app, which flags up the children who need targeted intervention, easy to use and helpful for evaluating how much progress the children have made. We’ve also been delighted to find that the programme works as a standalone intervention, but also how some settings are using it to shape their continuous provision.
Describe how the programme works in a nursery class. What’s unique about it?
It’s a wonderful mixture of a well-thought out, intensive programme, combined with the expertise of the people who are delivering it. Practitioners receive CPD-accredited training to ensure they are in the best position to deliver the daily, scripted enrichment programme to the whole class of three- and four-year-olds for 20 weeks. They also receive access to a support hub, mentors and activity ideas to accompany the sessions.
Children are screened to pick up on language weaknesses, and those that need help receive additional targeted small-group support three times a week, along with weekly individual sessions. We’ve had great success with nursery teams working together and some even taking it in turns to lead the programme, which builds a community of good practice within the setting.
We run webinars throughout the year to keep up the excitement and momentum. We want to ensure that settings understand how valued they are when delivering this programme and that they’re part of the NELI Preschool community.
What do nurseries like best about the programme?
Neli the elephant, the mascot and behaviour management tool, is well-liked by practitioners and loved by children. But if I could pinpoint one thing, it would be the range of activities on offer – and the scope for practitioners to bring their own ideas to the table – along with the range of high-quality picturebooks. The programme is built around the principles of shared book reading, using books published by Nosy Crow. During the enrichment sessions, the book is projected on a whiteboard and read with the children. Practitioners ask questions to get children thinking and interacting with the text; understanding what’s going on and talking and retelling aspects of the story. Special words from the book are picked out and there are lots of activities around teaching the meaning of the words.
Settings receive a huge box of resources: the mascot, the books, picture cards for sequencing and character cards, which can be used in imaginative play during the small-group sessions. The entire programme focuses around encouraging the children to produce language and helping them pay attention and build up engagement over time. Practitioners watch in real time as children’s confidence builds and language skills develop.
What does the future hold for NELI Preschool?
The first trial predominantly involved nurseries within primary schools, with a couple of PVIs and nursery schools. We’ve now recruited a further 20 PVI settings for the next stage of the research, starting in January, which will look at how well it can work in these settings. Recruitment for a much larger trial involving state-maintained and PVI settings will take place in 2024.
Getting to know you...
Describe your career path and how it has led you to NELI. I’ve always been interested in memory, learning and language – I taught my own children to sign when they were infants. I initially worked in business, but after retraining as a psychologist, I went into research and became a lecturer at Oxford University and I’m now lecturing in psychology and language sciences at UCL, as well as being involved in the roll-out of NELI Reception and NELI Preschool.
What does NELI mean to you? For me, NELI Preschool is about being able to make a difference to children entering school and giving them the tools, in terms of their language development, to be able to access education and make the most of their opportunities. Knowing that I’m part of this wonderful endeavour keeps me warm at night.
- Nuffield Early Language Intervention (NELI): teachneli.org
- OxEd & Assessment UK: oxedandassessment.com
- Search for more information on The Nuffield Early Language Intervention on YouTube