It’s called the Foundation Stage for a reason: the crucial importance of the early years

By the end of the Reception year, children who are eligible for the Pupil Premium are on average 4.6 months behind other children in their learning, according to analysis by the Education Policy Institute. The gap roughly doubles by the end of primary school, and doubles again by the end of secondary. In more concrete terms, analysis by the National Audit Office shows that only 25% of young people eligible for free school meals achieve GCSE English and Maths at grade 5 or above, compared to 52% of their peers.

It's a powerful reminder that we call the early years the Foundation Stage for a reason: a child needs strong foundations to achieve well in school. Without those foundations in the early years, a child’s future success in education and life are at risk.

The urgency of this might make it tempting for educators in the early years to press the accelerator on children’s learning of the literacy, mathematical and other knowledge they need for their future success. There is little doubt about how powerful that knowledge is for children. However, the journey of gaining that knowledge does not always look exactly like the destination.

If we take reading as an example, children’s communication and language lay the foundations for their fluency as readers when they are older. Back-and-forth conversations in play and other early years activities do not look like the teaching of reading, but they are an important stage of the journey. We can’t simply skip this out and focus solely on the end destination. Children who are not yet communicating well need more help to develop their communication, not more help with their reading. As the EEF’s Preparing for Literacy report says, ‘language provides the foundation of thinking and learning and should be prioritised.’

However, that raises a practical question: what does prioritising language for every child look like in practice?

In their important review of children’s early language development, James Law and colleagues refer to ‘a continuum of response to a continuum of need’. Broadly, this means that:

• Every child benefits from high-quality everyday practice that develops their communication skills

• It’s important to monitor children’s language over time

• Some children need more intensive, targeted support with their language development

• A small number of children need specialist support from Speech and Language Therapy

In practice that means:

Research evidence provides some clear pointers about everyday practice which can enhance children’s communication skills. The EEF’s Early Years Evidence Store summarises the research evidence and shows it in action through video clips, covering a wide range of approaches. You could use these resources for Professional Development sessions, either with groups of educators, or with individuals.

When it comes to ready-made professional development, the EEF is currently evaluating programmes which are suitable for educators working in settings, including childminders. Programmes we are evaluating include Communication-friendly home-based settings, the Early Years Conversation Project and NELI-Preschool. There are hundreds of early years settings taking part in these trials at the time of writing, across all areas of England, linked to the Stronger Practice Hub programme. As soon as we know about their effectiveness, we will be sharing that information with the sector.

The LanguageScreen assessment tool is one way of monitoring children’s language over time, as well as identifying those children who need more intensive support. It’s an app-based tool which takes less than ten minutes per child, and which has been extensively trialled.

Monitoring children’s language over time is important. It can help us make sure to focus extra help and attention on children with poorer language skills who might not reach the ‘threshold’ for extra support. Extra help and attention might involve more opportunities for shared book reading, for example, and more time in small group activities.

The Nuffield Early Language Intervention (NELI) is a well-trialled approach to targeted support for children in the Reception year. The EEF’s evaluation of NELI found that, on average, children taking part in the programme made an additional four months’ progress in their language development. For children eligible for free school meals, the impact was even stronger at seven months, though we need to be cautious about this because of the small sample size.

There is a strong case for using targeted interventions in the early years, but it is important to take care to minimise times that children are taken out of the main provision, so they don’t miss out on important learning and opportunities to play and make friends. It is also important to ensure that a targeted intervention is led by a well-trained and supported member of staff, as in the case of NELI. Interventions without an evidence-base, led by staff without the necessary professional development and support, can do more harm than good.

A further benefit of staff professional development combined with the use of an assessment tool, like WellComm or LanguageScreen, is that referrals to Speech and Language Therapy will be more accurate and specific. This is one of the promising findings of the Early Talk for York programme.

The DFE-funded Study of Early Education and Development (SEED) (Melhuish and Gardiner, 2021) found that the all-round-quality of early years practice is positive for every child, but the benefits for children experiencing socio-economic disadvantage are greater.

In the case of communication and language, this focus on everyday high-quality interactions is vital. Effective professional development, informed by research evidence and drawing on a trustworthy source like the Early Years Evidence Store, is one of the best ways of continually developing that quality. In time, the programme evaluation strand of the Stronger Practice Hubs programme will be able to tell us whether there are pre-designed programmes which are effective in a range of contexts. Potentially, that will save hard-pressed leaders and managers in early years settings from having to ‘reinvent the wheel’ when it comes to designing professional development programmesA programme is a package of support, including professional development, that helps early years educators to improve particular areas of practice and children’s outcomes. for their teams.

However, for some children, all-round quality will only take them part of the way on the journey to becoming a capable communicator. Many of those children will be experiencing socio-economic disadvantage. They might need a targeted intervention, like NELI, to realise their potential.

The argument that language provides the foundation of thinking and learning, and should be prioritised, has some challenging implications. When something is a priority, that means other things are less important. So what might we do less of in the early years, to make time for children’s language development? How might we deploy staff and resources to help the children most in need of extra support?

To promote more equal life-chances in the early years, we need to ensure that every child develops the secure foundations they need. Otherwise, children will not be able to take advantage of reading instruction and other high-priority areas during their first years at school. One size doesn’t fit all, so it is crucial to get to know each child well, establishing their strengths and needs as learners, and providing more intensive support where necessary. We need to provide a continuum of response to a continuum of need.