Early Talk Boost – second trial

What is Early Talk Boost?

Early Talk Boost is a targeted early language intervention aimed at three- to four-year-old children. The programme is designed to support children who require a targeted approach to develop their speech, language and communication skills, allowing them to catch-up with their peers.

The programme is nine weeks long and comprises three 15 – 20-minute sessions a week. It is usually delivered to small groups of six to eight children.

Who is leading this project?

Early Talk Boost is delivered by Speech and Language UK. The programme was designed by Speech and Language UK specialist teachers and speech and language therapists, with the help of early years practitioners and parents.

What will this project look like in your setting?

This trial aims to evaluate the Early Talk Boost intervention in an independent and rigorous way to test it’s impact on children’s oral language skills. Participating settings will be allocated to one of two groups: the intervention groupAs part of a Randomised Controlled Trial (RCT), settings will be randomised into either the intervention or control group. Settings in the intervention group will receive the programme being tested. , who will receive Early Talk Boost training free of cost, and the control groupAs part of a Randomised Controlled Trial (RCT), settings will be randomised into either the intervention or control group. Settings in the control group continue with their usual practices and help provide a comparison to measure the intervention’s impact. They are usually offered a monetary compensation as thanks for their contribution., who will not receive Early Talk Boost and will continue with their usual practice.

Settings in the intervention groupAs part of a Randomised Controlled Trial (RCT), settings will be randomised into either the intervention or control group. Settings in the intervention group will receive the programme being tested. will receive two online training sessions, Early Talk Boost resource packs and three support sessions from an Early Talk Boost trainer. This support will enable practitioners to deliver the programme to small groups of children who have been selected to take part based on a language assessment. Intervention settings will also receive a contribution towards staff costs for the time spent attending the Early Talk Boost training sessions.

As this is a research project, both intervention and control settings will be asked to complete some evaluation activities during the project. This will include supporting the evaluators to carry out child assessments and engaging in surveys or interviews. Settings will receive a thank you payment of £400 for completing the research activities. Settings in the control groupAs part of a Randomised Controlled Trial (RCT), settings will be randomised into either the intervention or control group. Settings in the control group continue with their usual practices and help provide a comparison to measure the intervention’s impact. They are usually offered a monetary compensation as thanks for their contribution. will also receive £1000 to thank them for their participation in the research project.

Who can take part?

To take part, settings must be able to:

• Commit two practitioners to attend the Early Talk Boost training
• Deliver three intervention sessions per week for nine weeks to two groups of children (to four groups of children in larger settings)
• Expect to have at least 20 children, aged three to four who attend the setting for at least three different days (or half-days) in a week during the 2025 – 26 academic year
• Commit to supporting evaluation activities

Settings are not eligible to take part if they:

• Are running Early Talk Boost groups during the academic year 2024 – 25
• Are planning to deliver the Nuffield Early Language Intervention for Preschools (NELI Preschool) or Talking Time in the academic year 2025 – 26
• Are based in Cumbria, North Yorkshire or the North East of England

There is evidence that approaches similar to those used in the Early Talk Boost programme can support children’s language development. A smaller trial of Early Talk Boost led by the programme developer found positive impacts on children’s language development. The EEF had previously commissioned a trial of Early Talk Boost, but due to issues with the baseline testing process the trial had to be cancelled. This new trial will test the impact of Early Talk Boost in a larger number of settings through a rigorous, independent evaluation.

This project will be evaluated by the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) through a randomised controlled trialAn RCT is used evaluate an educational programme by assigning settings to one of two groups: the intervention group, who receive the programme or the control group, who continue with business as usual. This ensures that any differences in outcomes can be confidently attributed to the programme, providing a robust estimate of the impact and contributing to the evidence for what works in improving educational outcomes., assessing the impact of Early Talk Boost on 3 – 4‑year-old children’s oral language and communication skills. Settings taking part have a 50% chance of being allocated to the intervention groupAs part of a Randomised Controlled Trial (RCT), settings will be randomised into either the intervention or control group. Settings in the intervention group will receive the programme being tested. (receiving the Early Talk Boost programme). Settings allocated to the control groupAs part of a Randomised Controlled Trial (RCT), settings will be randomised into either the intervention or control group. Settings in the control group continue with their usual practices and help provide a comparison to measure the intervention’s impact. They are usually offered a monetary compensation as thanks for their contribution. will continue with business as usual but will receive funding for taking part in the study. This funding can be used to purchase Early Talk Boost at the end of the study.

An implementation and process evaluationAn IPE is used to understand how and why an intervention has (or has not) been successful. Data is analysed to explore programme quality, reach, adaptation and differentiation, as well as setting fidelity and responsiveness to the trial design. will be conducted alongside the impact evaluation to explore how settings implement the programme, as well as their perceptions of Early Talk Boost.