Early Words Together: Impact on Families and Children

Early Words Together is a National Literacy Trust programme that develops young children's communication, language and literacy through the support of families by peer volunteers. Over six weeks, the programme brings practitioners and volunteers together to enable target families to improve their home learning environment for children aged two to five. The programme is delivered through small group sessions of one and a half hours, and includes an important peer support factor that helps parents: (1) Understand why they are important to their child's reading and language development; (2) Adopt effective activities to enrich their play, engagement and attachment with their child; and (3) Benefit and increase their child's literacy, communication and language development. The two-year pilot programme, funded by the Department of Education, was rolled out in 120 children's centres and early years settings from April 2013 to March 2015, involving nearly 1,000 volunteers and 1,850 parents. A school readiness checklist is appended. This report highlights the findings of the evaluation and provides key recommendations.