Pre-school education has been greatly expanded in the United Kingdom in the last two decades and further expansion is planned. Its provision allows parents to take up employment thus increasing family incomes and it is expected to narrow the gap between socially disadvantaged children and their peers. The latter is important as studies have shown that many children start school with poor language skills which threaten their attainment. Studies of the effects of pre-school education on the progress of disadvantaged children have shown inconsistent results and nurseries have been criticised by Ofsted for failing to prepare children for school entry. Nurseries and their staff have been found to vary in quality and in the level of qualifications they have. The provision of evidence based programmes which nursery staff may be trained to use may represent one means of improving their ability and improving the outcomes for pre-school children. We report an effectiveness study of Early Talk Boost a programme for use by nursery staff to improve language skills in three year olds. Nurseries were randomly assigned to use the programme or to act as waiting controls (who received the intervention in the following term). Children were assessed before and three months later after the completion of the programme. The progress of treated and control children differed significantly. Age equivalent scores showed treated children had gained 4.93 months, control children had gained only 2.33 months. We conclude that Early Talk Boost can be effective in advancing the language skills of socially disadvantaged children and improve their school readiness.

中文翻译：

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早期谈话促进：针对语言发育迟缓的三岁儿童的针对性干预

在过去的 20 年里，英国的学前教育得到了极大的扩展，并计划进一步扩展。它的规定允许父母就业，从而增加家庭收入，并有望缩小社会弱势儿童与其同龄人之间的差距。后者很重要，因为研究表明，许多儿童开始上学时语言技能不佳，这威胁到他们的学业。关于学前教育对弱势儿童进步影响的研究显示出不一致的结果，并且托儿所因未能为儿童入学做好准备而受到 Ofsted 的批评。已经发现托儿所及其工作人员在质量和资格水平上各不相同。提供以证据为基础的计划，可供托儿所工作人员使用，这可能是提高他们的能力和改善学龄前儿童成果的一种手段。我们报告了一项早期谈话促进计划的有效性研究，该计划供托儿所工作人员使用，以提高三岁儿童的语言技能。托儿所被随机分配使用该程序或充当等待对照（在下一个学期接受干预）。孩子们在课程结束前和三个月后接受了评估。治疗和对照儿童的进展有显着差异。年龄等效分数显示治疗儿童增加了 4.93 个月，对照组儿童仅增加了 2.33 个月。