This research was funded by a one year ESRC grant (2010-2011) and was carried out by Julia Carroll, Anna Cunningham and Ian Mundy.

During Phase 3, the children we previously saw when they were 4-6 years old during phases 1 and 2 were retested. Phase 3 occurred approximately three years after phase 1 when the children were 7-9 years old.

We have now finished testing and are analysing the data. Thank you to everyone who took part!

For a summary of our results download: Newsletter

We have also recently submitted an academic paper based on this research, and hope to be able to link to it shortly.

Our main findings were that:

• Phonological skills were linked to reading accuracy, while language skills were linked to reading comprehension.
  
• Children with a family risk of dyslexia showed poorer progress over time than would be predicted, even given the fact that they showed lower skills at school entry. These children need ongoing support rather than a short-term boost.
• Children with poor phonological skills at school entry tended to start to show poorer language skills over time.
  

For further information download: Parent information sheet, consent form, headteacher's information sheet

This research will help lead to the production of more explicit guidelines on the teaching of language to young children. Our results will be useful to advise foundation stage teachers on which language skills it would be beneficial to focus on to lead to maximum gains in literacy later on in school. Your participation has made an important contribution - thank you.