The longer‐term effects of reading interventions delivered by experienced teaching assistants

This study explored the responsiveness of children at risk of reading problems in Year 1 to a phonics intervention delivered by teaching assistants (TAs). Based on their non‐word decoding skills in the immediate post‐tests, 74 children were clustered together at the high end as ‘treatment responders’ ( n = 49) and at the low end as ‘treatment non‐responders’ ( n = 25) and were followed up at the end of Key Stage 1, 16 months after the intervention finished. The treatment‐responder group was superior in all areas of rated attainment and, unlike the non‐responders, achieved national averages in most teacher ratings of attainment. These results suggest that experienced TAs can help two out of three children at risk of reading difficulties.