Talking Time is a universal intervention that aims to improve the oral language skills of children aged 3 to 5 through structured activities for children and professional development for staff.
It supports early years educators to deliver forty 15-minute small-group sessions, which include shared storytelling, playful language games and narrative discussions of familiar routines.
The programme is designed to be adapted for individual children and settings and embedded into long-term routine practice.
The programme was developed by a team from the UCL Institute of Education, the University of Oxford, and LINGO. It is delivered by LINGO. The EEF has tested the impact of the programme with 3 – 4‑year-old children in early years settings.
Wider evidence summarised in the EEF’s Early Years Evidence Store suggests that high-quality interactions with children in early years settings can positively impact their oral language development.
Drawing on this evidence base, the EEF commissioned an efficacy trial to evaluate the impact of Talking Time on the oral language skills of 3 – 4‑year-old children. The EEF trialled this programme in approximately 120 schools in best possible conditions.
This evaluation found that children in early years settings that delivered Talking Time© made one month of additional progress in language development, on average, compared with children in other settings.
This result has a four-padlock security rating, which means that we are confident that this additional progress was due to the programme itself rather than other factors.
Children eligible for the Early Years Pupil Premium and children with English as an additional language in Talking Time settings made approximately two additional months of progress in language development compared to their peers in other settings. This suggests that the programme may be particularly beneficial for disadvantaged pupils. However, because this analysis included fewer pupils, these findings are less secure than the finding for all pupils.
These positive results have led EEF to designate this as a ‘Promising Programme’.
The EEF is exploring the feasibility of evaluating the programme in a larger number of early years settings through an effectiveness trial.
- There were 123 early years settings in this efficacy trial.
- The settings were recruited from the North West of England, Yorkshire and the Humber, the West Midlands, the East of England and London.
- The majority of the settings in the trial were school-based nurseries. 19% of the settings were Private, Voluntary and Independent Settings.
- 19% of children in the trial were eligible for the Early Years Pupil Premium and 34% had English as an additional language. These figures are slightly higher than the national average among early years settings in England.
Talking Time is designed to be flexible and adaptable to suit individual children and settings. Settings taking part receive three twilight training sessions for all staff. The staff leading on programme delivery then receive additional mentoring support. These educators are referred to as the Talking Time Leads.
In the efficacy trial, two Talking Time leads were trained per setting. Other settings may wish to identify more leads to build additional capacity for delivery.
Talking Time leads take part in four in-class mentoring sessions and three online mentoring sessions, where a trainer supports them to develop their skills and gain confidence in delivering the programme.
Talking Time leads also engage in a weekly individual professional reflection and are provided with a manual that includes flexible plans and conversation prompts, five picture books and a pack of ‘hexagon’ photos to support implementation.
In the final weeks of the programme, Talking Time Leads are supported to plan activities based on books and materials of their own choice. Talking Time leads are expected to deliver 15-minute activities to all children in their setting, in small groups of children of mixed language ability (maximum 5 children) twice per week for 20 weeks. However, settings are encouraged to continue Talking Time beyond the formal 20-week period and embed it into everyday practice in the longer term.
The programme was generally implemented well by early years settings. Early years educators who took part in Talking Time engaged well with the professional development activities and expressed strong enthusiasm for the programme.
The Talking Time sessions were also well attended by children and practitioners reported that they observed notable improvements in children’s language skills. The main challenges to implementing Talking Time and sustaining its delivery in the longer term were staff capacity and staff turnover.
Fewer Private, Voluntary and Independent early years settings (PVIs) signed up to take part in the evaluation of Talking Time than school-based settings. There was also some evidence in the evaluation that the programme may have been less impactful in Private, Voluntary and Independent settings than in school-based nursery settings. There is uncertainty about this finding, as it is based on a small number of settings, but it may be that staff in PVIs struggled more to commit staff capacity to deliver the programme and sustain programme delivery.
The average cost of Talking Time for one setting was around £3,505, or £64 per child per year when averaged over three years. This estimate includes 20 hours of staff time per setting to attend Talking Time training. This estimate reflects the costs of the programme as it was implemented in the study. The project team anticipates that future delivery costs outside of the trial will be lower.
Settings will need to check the current cost of the programme through LINGO.
- Talking Time is available now through LINGO for schools and settings.
- The version available is very similar to that trialled with some small changes based on feedback and learning from the trial. This includes, for example, more structured resources to support cascading of professional development to the wider staff team/new staff members; expanded resources to support sustainment; and clearer guidance to support flexible implementation in settings of different types.
- Talking Time is available for nursery age children and reception classes (although it should be noted that the EEF trial included only nursery age children).
- Currently there is availability in the north (Yorkshire and the North West), Midlands and South (London, South East and South West regions). Up to 20 places are available for academic year 26/27. There are plans in place to broaden this with training of additional mentors.
- Follow this link to express interest through the Talking Time webpage.