Evaluating the Impact of Story Starters on Children's Language Development

Children who read regularly with their parents or carers tend to learn language faster, enter school with a larger vocabulary of words and become more successful readers in school. Because of this, local authorities often commission services to promote family-based shared book reading. However, recent studies suggest that shared reading interventions work less effectively for children from disadvantaged backgrounds than originally thought, particularly when their parents have lower levels of education. This means that there is a danger that the benefits of shared reading will be restricted to children from more affluent homes and not get through to those who need them most. To solve this problem, there is a need to develop a better understanding of how reading interventions work and to evaluate existing shared reading interventions to determine whether they are effective in promoting young children's language development.

The aim of this project is to evaluate whether Beanstalk's 'Story Starters' intervention is effective in boosting vocabulary and grammatical development in young children. Story Starters is a reading intervention delivered by Beanstalk, a national children's literacy charity committed to ensuring no child faces the severe consequences of illiteracy. Beanstalk trains volunteers to provide caring and fun one-to-one support to disadvantaged children aged 3 and 4 in local nurseries, aiding their language development.

The project will compare the effects of the 'Story Starters' intervention against a wait-list control group. Children in the intervention group will receive the Story Starters intervention, delivered by a trained Beanstalk volunteer, at their preschool for six months. The trained volunteer will visit the child twice a week and deliver a one-to-one 20 minute book reading and play session. Children in the intervention group will also receive a new book each month which will be sent to their home address by Dolly Parton's Imagination Library.

Children in the wait list control group will also receive a new book each month from Dolly Parton's Imagination Library but they will not receive the 'Story Starters' intervention until after the project has ended.

Inclusion criteria

All families will be included unless they fit the exclusion criteria

Exclusion criteria

• Children born before 37 weeks gestation (premature)
• Children who weighed less than 5lb 9oz at birth (low birth weight)
• Children who have had an ear infection/glue ear for longer than 3 months, 4-6 ear infections within a 6 month period or another identified hearing problem (e.g. at newborn hearing screening)
• Children with an identified developmental disability (e.g. Cerebral Palsy, Autism Spectrum Disorder, Fragile X syndrome, Muscular dystrophy, Di George syndrome, Down's syndrome, Williams syndrome)
• Children with a hearing or visual impairment
• Children who hear another language (not English) for 1 day or more in a typical week (please note that this also excludes children of parents who do not speak English)
• Children whose parents have a learning disability which puts their children at risk of language delay and excludes the parents from giving informed consent on their own and on their children's behalf.