Developed in collaboration with Speech and Language Therapists and adapted from the National Literacy Trust’s Early Words Together model, First Words Together responds to growing evidence that the foundations of language and communication are laid even before children begin to speak.
To understand the benefits of the programme for children, parents, practitioners and local provision, we commissioned Centre for Research in Early Childhood (CREC) to evaluate its impact. This document summarises CREC’s findings from two phases of the programme delivery: Phase 1, assessing data from delivery across Birmingham between 2021 and 2023 (Pascal et al., 2023) and Phase 2, which evaluated data collected from delivery across the Black Country and the North East of England in 2023 and 2024 (Pascal et al., 2025).
This summary gives an overview of key benefits for parents, children, practitioners and local provision.