From intervention to everyday practice: building educator capacity to support young children’s language
In this webinar, Dr Sandra Mathers and Wendy Lee will explore what we can learn from Talking Time, a preschool early language programme recently evaluated in a large EEF-funded trial. Children made an average of one month’s additional progress in language development, rising to around two months for children eligible for the Early Years Pupil Premium and those with English as an additional language.
Drawing on the Talking Time trial and wider research, Sandra and Wendy will explore what makes adult-child conversations effective for language learning and how we can build lasting capacity within the early years workforce. They will consider how combining evidence-based activities with professional development can help educators understand, use and adapt language-supporting strategies for individual children – noticing more, responding more skilfully and turning everyday exchanges into richer conversations. The webinar will consider why building professional knowledge, confidence and skills may be key to sustaining the benefits of interventions over time.
This session is ideal for educators, SENCOs and leaders, and anyone interested in developing effective and sustainable approaches to young children’s communication and language.
Dr Sandra Mathers is an Associate Professor at the Department of Education, University of Oxford. She began her career as a teacher and her work remains strongly practice and policy relevant. Sandra’s research explores how we can best promote high-quality interactions between adults and children. Her work and interests include: developing and evaluating early language and PD programmes for early educators (e.g. Talking Time); large-scale longitudinal studies (e.g. Children of the 2020s); evaluations of government early years initiatives (e.g. the Graduate Leader Fund); quality and inequality in early education provision; pedagogical knowledge and professional growth; and parent-child joint media engagement. She leads the online part-time Postgraduate Diploma in Early Childhood Education at Oxford, designed to ground early education professionals in research evidence on child development and early childhood education to inform policy and practice.
Wendy Lee has worked as a speech and language therapist for 40 years, in clinical practice, higher education and the third sector. She was Professional Director at The Communication Trust until 2015 where she led on several projects, as well as inputting on national policy and research. Wendy is currently the Director of LINGO, an independent speech and language therapy practice, which offers consultancy, professional development, resources and speech and language therapy. She is interested in evidence based practice and works with Oracy Cambridge to support inclusive oracy practice for all children and young people. She is also part of the Talking Time team, supporting language development in the early years, alongside the University of Oxford and University College London and delivering on the recent EEF research trial.