Promoting school readiness in children at risk through language interventions: an exploration of how and why child, family and social factors influenc

Around 8% of children enter formal schooling with poor language development and a substantially higher proportion does so in areas of social disadvantage. These children are at increased risk of poor long-term outcomes in mental health, education and employment. There are a growing number of effective language interventions. It would therefore appear logical to provide language interventions to children at-risk to promote their 'school readiness'. However, a number of studies suggest that the social and child factors that put a child at risk of poor language may also put them at risk of a poorer response to interventions. Currently we do not fully understand how and why these factors influence differential intervention response. It is therefore difficult to determine how interventions should be constructed to compensate for potentially combined risks, which risks may be the most important to address, and whether some risks may be more readily addressed than others. This study addresses these issue through a three stage methodology: (1) a meta-analytical review of intervention studies; 2), analysis of population cohort data using structural equation modelling; 3) completion of a series of intervention case studies. In this way it will address the following research questions: 1. Which child, family and social factors are associated with differential responses to language interventions? 2. To what extent do pre-school language skills mediate the relationship between early predictors and school readiness and do any factors moderate this relationship? 3. How might knowledge of these factors be integrated into intervention design to increase its efficacy?