What is ELF?

ELF is an evidence based program written by the University of Queensland. It was designed as an intervention program for students who were falling behind in Literacy during the early years of school. We use the program with Year 1 students.

ELF is Early Years Foundations and supports development of phonic skills, fine motor, gross motor, handwriting, group working skills and much more. The program is sequenced over 12 modules which lasts for approximately 3 terms when taught for 40 mins twice a week.

Screening process

All children in Year 1 are screened for the program. The screening looks at gross motor skills, fine motor skills, phonic knowledge and spelling.

1. The children are asked to perform a number of gross motor tasks looking at core muscles and coordination e.g. hopping, jumping 2 feet, heel to toe walking.
2. The spelling component asks the children to spell a number of words, real and nonsense. This is then scored diagnostically looking for initial, final and intermediate sounds.
3. Phonological awareness looks at the children’s ability to identify words with the same initial and then same final sounds.
4. Children are then asked to cut out a house shape to assess their cutting skills.
5. For handwriting students write their name, the alphabet, and copy short sentences close up and from the board. This often reveals vision difficulties, especially when copying from the board.

Once all these assessments have been carried out groups are formed for students identified in need of support. In addition to the ELF screening we consider PM reading levels and teacher observations. Usually between 6 and 12 students are identified in each class.

Results from previous years

Over the past years I have tracked progress using John Hattie’s effect size calculation and students make considerable progress with the program. This year I also tracked students who had completed ELF and their Year 3 and 5 NAPLAN results. There were a number of students who had completed the program whose NAPLAN results were in the average range. Some who were still below have received a diagnosis of a learning difficulty.

One of the great things about the ELF program is that by the end of the 12 modules it is clearer which students need further investigation for learning difficulties and those who just needed an extra help up.