Participants

1. Stage 1 recruitment (Time A):
   All children take National Curriculum standard assessment tests (SATS) at the end of year 6 and year 9 in English, Maths and Science. The national levels of expected attainment in key stage 2 (year 6) is level 4 as recommended by the government.
   
   Any score below level 4 is outside the expected range. Previous research shows that students with language impairments score below the national average across all three core curricular subjects. All year 7 students from secondary schools in Redbridge and Barking and Dagenham with SATS English scores of level 4c or lower in year 6 will be recruited to stage 1 of the project.
   
   It is envisaged that students with average language abilities, more general learning difficulties and those with English as a second language will be included in the cohort at this point. These students will be filtered out at time B. Participants will be required to have English as their main language in their social/family life
2. Stage 2 recruitment (Time B):
   To ensure that students recruited to the study have a primary language impairment, an in-depth assessment (time B) will include the screening of verbal and non-verbal abilities and all students meeting a more specific language impairment will continue in the study.
   
   All the students will be recruited at the beginning of year 7 and their age range will be restricted to 11.0-12.0 years.