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Nuffield Early Language Intervention awarded a 3+ evidence rating

The Nuffield Early Lanaguage Intervention has been awarded a 3+ evidence rating in an upated version of the Early Intervention Foundation (EIF) Guidebook.

The EIF Guidebook provides information about early intervention programmes that have at least preliminary evidence of achieving positive outcomes for children. It provides information based on EIF’s assessment of the strength of evidence for a programme’s effectiveness, and on detail about programmes shared with us by those who design, run and deliver them.

The Nuffield Early Language Intervention is an evidence-based oral language intervention for children in nursery and reception who show weakness in their oral language skills and who are therefore at risk of experiencing difficulty with reading. The 30 week programme is targeted at children between the ages of 3 and 6 who are in nursery and the first year of primary school (receotion). The 20 week programme is targeted at children between the ages of 4 and 6 who are in the first year of primary school (reception). NELI is delivered by teaching assistants in groups of 3-4 children.

The EFI Guidebook serves as an important starting point for commissioners to find out more about effective early interventions, and for programme providers to find out more about what good evidence of impact looks like and how it can be captured.

We are delivering the Nuffield Early Language Intervention in partnership with Oxford University Press (OUP). If you want to find out more about how to use the intervention in your school, visit the OUP website.

In 2016, the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) published an evaluation study of the Nuffield Early Language Intervention. The statistically significant results from 34 schools demonstrated that the programme increased the attainment of levels of 4- to 5- year-olds in vocabulary, grammar and listening skills and improved language and children’s confidence. The EEF designated the intervention as a ‘promising project’ and a further, larger-scale trial involving 200 classrooms is in train.


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