Positive Recognition for Infant Language Link in DfE’s Rapid Evidence Review

We are so pleased to have received favourable mentions of our Infant Language Link package in the report “Supporting stammering, speech, and language needs in the early years: a rapid evidence review with case studies on working together” (DfE, 2025).

This review explored how early years practitioners and settings can better support children aged 0 – 5 with speech, language and communication needs drawing on evidence and highlighting promising approaches that promote strong communication development.

Identification and assessment:

Accurate and robust assessments are at the core of our packages to ensure that all children with language needs are identified. We create each of our standardised assessments to a high standard, alongside the University of Cambridge Psychometrics Centre, and are really glad that this was recognised in the review:

“The Infant and Reception Language Link tools provide reliable and well-validated resources for identifying … language needs across a broad age range… using modern psychometric methods (Table 4).”

“For identification of language needs… a subset [of assessments] reporting the best psychometric properties include… the Infant/Reception Language Link.”

This is something that we are undeniably proud of. Importantly, our Infant Language Link assessments are not only standardised (meaning that each child’s performance is compared to the average performance of children of the same age), but they are standardised by age in months, which means you get very precise, meaningful results for your pupils.

Since the research review was completed for the report, we have launched our school entry assessment (reception-aged) within Infant Language Link, replacing our previous Reception Language Link assessment. The new assessment is the fastest and most accurate standardised assessment available for the school entry year – 2 out of 3 students in an average class can be assessed in only ten minutes. We have created two versions of the assessment designed to identify children at specific time points in the year, making the results even more accurate, and allowing for better comparison of performance from the start to the end of the year (find out more here). This way, you can be confident that you’re making decisions about who needs support based on highly accurate data while reducing workload, giving you more time to support your pupils’ learning and progress.

Interventions, support and working together

When creating Infant Language Link, our speech and language therapists unanimously agreed that the package should have a graduated approach (universal, targeted and specialist support), and we are glad that the DfE recognise the importance of this:

“In terms of working together, collaborative, tiered models of speech and language support, developed and delivered in partnership across the children’s workforce, provide the most efficient and effective means of delivering universal, targeted, and specialist support equitably. All models place children and their parents or caregivers at the centre, aiming to ensure timely, high-quality support that improves long-term outcomes.”

Working within a tiered approach in this way ensures that your pupils receive the appropriate level of support and your precious resources are used most efficiently. Assessment and intervention progress results will indicate whether children would benefit from support individually, in groups or within the classroom; you can also seek further advice regarding specific pupils, from our very own speech and language therapy team.

Our packages align with models such as The Balanced System®, and we work alongside local specialist services. Infant Language Link flags pupils who might need further investigation or advice from external professionals. As such, you can be confident you are equipping every child with the language skills they need to learn and thrive.

We have also ensured that parent and child views are heard, making them an integral part of our progress measures. You’ll never be short of resources for parents – information sheets, home activities and access to our award-winning Parent Portal enables you to keep parents informed and involved throughout.

Future developments

We’re always looking for ways to build on and enhance our speech and language packages. Currently, Infant Language Link is being further developed, with particular emphasis on strengthening our interventions to ensure that language and communication support is seamlessly embedded within everyday classroom practice. Our aim is to equip every member of teaching staff with the awareness, skills and tools needed to boost each pupil’s language and communication every single day.

Not only this, we are excited to be launching our Early Years Package, Little Link on 13th October 2025. This package, suitable for nurseries, includes a story-based screening tool and play-based language and communication activities to be used throughout the whole setting. It directly addresses the advice provided by the DfE early years review, helping practitioners put recommendations into practice.

Thank you to the DfE for producing this much-needed information. Being highlighted in the review endorses what Speech & Language Link offers schools – robust identification, reliable data, practical support and a clear pathway for every child.