Research on a community home-based language screening and intervention for 2-year-olds, delivered by trained language development workers.
The challenge: Preschool children with language difficulties are at risk of being behind before they’ve even begun school. Early language abilities are linked to academic success, job prospects, and general wellbeing.
There are lots of reasons why young children might struggle with language. However, finding these children early, and doing something about it, can help children get ready for school. This is particularly important after COVID-19. The pandemic has had a very negative impact on both home and childcare settings that usually help children at risk of language delay.
What we’re doing about it
In Bradford, Better Start have funded ‘Talking Together’. This is a six-week, home-based intervention designed by charity BHT Early Education and Training, for 2-year-olds who are at risk of language delay. BHT have been in the Bradford community for well over a decade. They work closely with the health visiting service and families to find children who may struggle with language. BHT’s Talking Together encourages activities that help children’s language skills. This includes activities like attentive play, turn-taking, and giving praise. Talking Together helps equip parents with the skills they need to support their children before they get to school.
At the Better Start Bradford Innovation Hub, we ran a study (‘oTTer: the outcomes of Talking Together evaluation and results’, funded by the Nuffield Foundation) to look at how Talking Together might improve language skills and parent-child relationships.
Findings
Talking Together has been delivered in many languages in Bradford. This includes English, Urdu, Punjabi, Bengali, Polish, and Slovak, reflecting the diverse nature of the region. Our oTTer study found promising evidence that children’s language abilities improve after they take part in Talking Together. Children who received Talking Together understood more words afterwards. Parents also reported an improved relationship with their child following Talking Together. Families appreciated the home visiting nature of the programme. They also found the support that their language development workers provided helpful.
Future plans
We are really excited that Talking Together showed evidence of promise. We are currently planning a large study with BHT (a ‘randomised controlled trial’) that investigates how Talking Together improves children’s language abilities and parents’ supportive relationship with their children in a greater number of families. We would also like to run Talking Together across the country to benefit other areas, and see how the service works for them.
Project summary written by Rachael Cheung
the Better Start Bradford Innovation Hub 