Abstract

The provision of language enriching early years environments in early childhood education
and care (ECEC) is vital to children’s language development. Ensuring all children have
access to such experiences has the potential to narrow inequalities in language outcomes
associated with families’ socio-economic circumstances.
Building Early Sentences Therapy (BEST) and the Derbyshire Language Scheme (DLS) are
effective in improving children’s use and/or understanding of simple sentences. BEST is
based on ‘usage-based’ theory: the systematic manipulation of the nature and quantity of
language a child hears, promotes abstract, flexible knowledge and use of a range of
sentence structures, accelerating future language learning. DLS incrementally increases the
information carrying words children are asked to understand and produce. The adapted
version of DLS (A-DLS) used in this study follows the principles of traditional DLS but
delivers the programme more rapidly. This project aimed to determine whether BEST and A�DLS differ in their efficacy.
Comparisons of effective interventions enable informed choices to be made regarding which
work best for a given child, context, or family preference. Comparing interventions delivered
with the same dosage, delivery context, and treatment fidelity tests whether it is the
specific learning mechanisms exploited by the interventions which promote change.
Twenty schools were independently randomised to receive BEST or A-DLS. Measures were
collected at baseline, outcome, and follow-up. Children aged 3;06–4;06, identified by
teachers as monolingual English speakers, and not meeting age-related expectations in
their language development, were assessed and included if they: Scored ≤16th centile on
the New Reynell Developmental Language Scales (NRDLS) comprehension and/or
production subscales and had no sensorineural hearing impairment, severe visual
impairment or learning disability.
Interventions were delivered, with high fidelity, through ~15-minute group sessions
delivered twice weekly for eight weeks in preschool settings by qualified Speech and
Language Therapist researchers. Measures were completed blind to intervention arm.
One-hundred-and-two children participated. There were no differences in NRDLS
comprehension or production standard scores at outcome but children receiving BEST had
higher comprehension and production standard scores at follow-up. Both interventions were
associated with large clinically meaningful changes in communicative participation.