Interventions for Language Learning Impairments

Professor Maggie SnowlingSt John’s College, Oxford

Spoken language is the foundation for learning

• The medium of instruction• The foundation for literacy (and

especially reading with understanding)

• The support for numeracy development, especially verbal number skills

• Associated with better self- regulation

• The strongest predictor of educational achievement

Children with poor language at school entry require intervention

How can we foster oral language skills?

Reading vs. Language Intervention

Letter Knowledge Early Word Read-ing

Spelling Vocabulary Grammar82.00

84.00

86.00

88.00

90.00

92.00

94.00

96.00

98.00

100.00

102.00

OLP+R

6-month follow-up (t4)

Peer

-bas

ed S

tand

ard

Scor

e (N

=500

)

Overview

Measure Mean SD

CELF EV Scaled 7.8 2.7

CELF SS Scaled 7.4 2.5

PSRep Standard 82.9 17.0

Intervention effects on language [at post-test T5]

Outcomes at T6 (+6 months)

Langu

age

Narrati

ve

Phonological

Awareness LK

Decoding

Reading C

omprehension

0.83

0.3

0.49 0.52

0.07

0.52

Effect Size

Oral Language mediates Reading Comprehension outcomes

Language Post-Test (t5)

.86 .67 .67 .63

t5 APTInfo

t5 APTGrammar

t5 ListComp

t5 CELFVocab

INTERVENTIONReading

Comprehensiont6

.47

.26 .65

York Reading for Meaning (ReadMe) trial

Clarke, Hulme, Truelove & Snowling (2010)

Programme contents and features

Combined• All eight components• Sessions contained both reading and listening comprehension• Opportunities for children to encounter new vocabulary/idioms/inferences in both written and spoken language

All interventions improvedReading Comprehension

Vocabulary was mediator of outcome

• Oral language work can be successfully delivered in school settings • In the early years, there is robust evidence that vocabulary and

narrative skills can improve significantly as can oral phonological awareness

• Improvements in oral language impact literacy development, especially reading comprehension

• BUT there is no quick fix; – Interventions need to be of high quality– Short interventions may have specific effects but little generalization

• Teaching assistants in mainstream schools and early years staff should be trained, supported and mandated to deliver oral language work

CreditsA big ‘thank you’ to all our collaborators:• Nuffield Foundation and ESRC • Charles Hulme, Claudine Bowyer-Crane, Silke

Fricke, Fiona Duff, Emma Truelove, Glynnis Smith, Elizabeth Fieldsend

• Teaching Assistants and Schools who supported the research