Interventions for Language
Learning Impairments
Professor Maggie Snowling
St 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 selfregulation
• 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
Peer-based Standard Score (N=500)
102.00
100.00
98.00
96.00
94.00
OL
92.00
P+R
90.00
88.00
86.00
84.00
82.00
Letter Knowledge Early Word Reading
Spelling
6-month follow-up (t4)
Vocabulary
Grammar
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)
Effect Size
0.83
0.49
0.52
0.52
0.3
0.07
Oral Language mediates
Reading Comprehension outcomes
.47
t5 CELF
Vocab
.86
t5 APT
Info
t5 APT
Grammar
t5 List
Comp
.67
.67
.63
Language
Post-Test (t5)
INTERVENTION
Reading
Comprehension
t6
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 improved
Reading 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
Credits
A 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