LIVELY Project

Newcastle University conducted a research project to evaluate the effectiveness of language interventions for pre-school children in nursery contexts with significant language difficulties.

This research project, funded by the Heather van der Lely Foundation, evaluated the effectiveness of language interventions for children with language difficulties by randomly allocating schools to one of two groups:

• Building Early Sentences Therapy (BEST) was developed by Newcastle University in partnership with speech and language therapists and has promising early signs of effectiveness.
• The Derbyshire Language Scheme (DLS) has been used widely for many years. The study used an adapted version of this scheme.

The benefits of the project:

This was an excellent opportunity to involve local authority staff and schools in innovative research. There was no cost for participating in the project.

• Eligible children, in all participating schools, benefited from receiving a language intervention delivered by a qualified speech and language therapist.
• All schools had access to a series of CPD sessions, offered by the research team, focused on supporting children with language difficulties. This increased the skills of staff and supported schools to achieve their goal of providing effective language support to all children.
• All schools received a certificate in recognition of their work as a research participant and their commitment to promoting robust language development in the early years.
• Whichever group a school was in, they were helping to identify which intervention is most appropriate. All participating schools will be trained in the use of this intervention.
• All schools, parents and project partners will be offered a summary of the findings, once the project is complete.