Early Years Language and Literacy Program
The full Promising Practice Profile is available for download in PDF format (560 KB)
Project practice
Oral Language Sessions
Project undertaken by
Upfield and Campbellfield Heights Primary Schools, Broadmeadows Communities for Children (Melbourne, VIC)
Start date
January 2006
Focal areas
Healthy young families
Supporting families and parents
Early learning and care
Families and children’s services working effectively together
Program
Communities for Children (CfC)
Issue
Australian Early Development Index (AEDI) results indicate that School readiness is an issue for the target neighbourhoods. Research shows that language and literacy are the building blocks for lifelong learning. Any deficiency in this area worsens with age and leads to early school exit.
In 2005, overall the Broadmeadows site (20 schools and 629 Prep children) 15% of children were considered developmentally vulnerable in the Language and cognitive skills domain. The suburbs of Campbellfield (29.6%) and Dallas (26.8%) were the neighbourhoods where children were most vulnerable in the language and cognitive skills domain.
Research and community consultation identified that there was a need to provide activities in Broadmeadows to assist in preparing children for school. Community consultation demonstrated a high level of concern about speech and language development. The 2005 AEDI results validated this community concern by showing 35–40% of children in Upfield and Campbellfield were vulnerable on the communication domain of development. Language was also a concern with a vulnerability level of 26.8%.
Program context
The Early Years Language and Literacy Enrichment Program was based at Upfield Primary School, in the City of Hume. The school serves a multi-cultural community with a high proportion of socio economic disadvantage. The program aimed to support oral language and literacy enrichment for Children in their Kindergarten year. The strategy was to employ an outreach speech pathologist to educate parents to enhance language development before children commenced formal schooling. The program targeted families with children in the kindergartens in Upfield and Campbellfield.
The program consisted of an Oral Language Session and a Playgroup component. The Promising Practice profile addresses the Oral Language component.
The Language enrichment model targeted the transition to school that begins in the year prior to commencing school. Oral Language sessions provided education and information to parents in how they might best encourage their children’s language development in English and in their first language. The model involved conducting regular small group sessions with parents demonstrating the use of oral language activities that can be then practised in the home setting. A series of pre- and post-oral language tests was conducted with each participating child.
The objectives of the project were to:
- develop a transition to school pilot strategy to support oral language enrichment within two targeted schools (Upfield and Campbellfield Heights Primary Schools);
- conduct regular information sessions with parents demonstrating oral language activities that can then be practiced in the home setting;
- improve the capacity of parents and children to engage in learning through oral language and play;
- ensure children have an opportunity to grow up with sound oral language skills in their first language as well as in English; and
- produce a language enrichment model for transition to school that begins at enrolment of students in the year prior to commencing school.
Practice description
The program identified children at risk of language/speech problems and provided a prevention and early intervention focusing on language enrichment. The program encouraged parents to use their home language, English or both to develop their child’s language and conceptual skills. The project used a play-based approach to learning and developed a series of kits that encouraged parents to play with their children and to engage with them in a series of theme-based activities. For example, one kit focussed on food preparation and included a set of toy saucepans and toy food items.
The play-based approach involved both parents and children and encouraged parents to be their child’s first teacher in preparing them for school by practising words and concepts at home in both, their first language and in English. Primary Schools in the City of Hume were particularly interested in the further development of this project. They can see that it has a valuable role in preparing children for school. The local Speech Therapist network also has a keen interest in the project, especially in its prevention focus since there are substantial waiting lists for Speech therapy in the area.
The key activities and ingredients for Oral Language Sessions included:
Qualified Arabic-speaking speech pathologist
A majority of families in Upfield and Campbellfield suburbs are Arabic or Turkish speaking. The project employed an outreach Arabic-speaking speech pathologist to work with kindergarten families to educate parents in enhancing their children’s language development. The skill and flexibility of the speech pathologist was central to the success of the program as was her ability to speak with parents in their first language (Arabic).
The practice has changed the way a speech pathologist works with children and parents. The program worked with:
- children “at risk” but with no diagnosis in the year before school;
- prevention rather than a remediation in prep or at Grade 1;
- parents as learning partners;
- child-friendly and inclusive approach (the program provided small group sessions, including parents and younger siblings).
Developing oral language tubs and translating them into Arabic and Turkish
The speech pathologist bought toys and boxed them up into themes (oral language tubs) as everyday activities to develop specific vocabulary and concepts through play for children and their parents. Children learnt not just names but also actions, verbs, and concepts of space and place which are important parts of school assessments in Grade Prep (e.g., above, below, behind, under, over).
Themes of the oral language tubs included picnic time, shopping, clothes, animals of the wild, farm animals, sports, transport and food. Overall, 23 oral language tubs were developed.
The project found that:
- The relationship between school and kindergarten was critical to its success.
- Oral language resources can be effectively translated into languages other than English to suit the communities being served.
- It is important to have a bilingual worker involved. Having either a speech pathologist or an assistant who is bilingual ensures that parents can understand the aim of the activities and work in collaboration with the speech pathologist.
Other factors relevant to the success of the program
- A culturally appropriate family-inclusive approach; and
- liaison with other services and recruitment for oral language session.
The approach was seen as applicable in a range of settings, including:
- primary schools;
- community hubs;
- kindergartens; and
- by parents at home with 4–5 year olds prior to commencing school.
Research base
Research indicates that children who enter school not yet ready to learn tend to do less well in school. Also, children who are not ready for school tend to have lower education levels on leaving school and are more likely to have poor employment records in adulthood (The future of children, 2005). Differences among children in terms of school readiness can be traced to capabilities seen during the preschool years and the experiences in and out of the home that foster development (Boethel 2004; Shonkoff & Phillips, 2000). Research also suggests that services, strategies and programs intended to optimise school readiness need to be implemented in early childhood—well before a child approaches school entry.
School readiness is thought to involve all aspects of early-childhood development, with five interrelated domains of:
- physical health and wellbeing;
- social knowledge and competence;
- emotional maturity;
- language and cognitive development; and
- general knowledge and communication skills (Farrar, Goldfeld, & Moore, 2006).
This program makes practical structured use of a play based approach to language enhancement. It fits well within a model of transition from informal play-based learning to more formal school-based learning (Brostrom, 2005).
Outcomes
The program took a prevention and early intervention model to develop oral language, cognitive and communication skills for children in kindergartens through play based activities. Both schools and the AEDI had identified language as a vulnerability for a substantial proportion of children in the region (Dallas, Campbellfield and Upfield). Therefore, a early intervention approach was taken by engaging with interested parents and children in their kindergarten year. Overall children’s language development was enhanced and parents became engaged in their children’s education before they commenced school.
The following have been the direct outcomes/impact of this activity:
- increased language skills of children as demonstrated by pre and post testing of children;
- increased parental awareness of early years education;
- increased parental awareness of importance of play and one on one engagement with their children;
- improved communication between parents and early years services; and
- increased social connectedness (parents meet each other and establish a relationship before the beginning of the Prep year; children build a relationship with a new adult).
The interim evaluation of the program found that there had been the following achievements:
- The activity has been running for 12 months with good attendance levels.
- The facilitators have engaged with culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) families.
- The children from the activity who entered the 4-year-old kindergarten program were very settled this year compared with last year, when they were crying and upset.
- The partnership has helped the community partners engage with the local parents.
Evidence of outcomes
Outcomes for children
Increased language skills of children as demonstrated by pre and post testing of children.
During this activity a pre and post evaluation of children in Upfield (n = 11) and Campbellfield (n = 14) was conducted. The purpose of the evaluation was to investigate the impact of the activity on children’s level of oral development. The pre and post evaluation comprised of nine oral language scales including Renfrew Action Picture Test (RAPT) (information), RAPT (grammar), concepts, body, nouns, verbs, categories, functions, prepositions. These tests have enabled the speech pathologist to view changes in children’s speech, language and literacy skills, particularly looking at expressive language and grammar usage.
From the pre-test to the post-test, children in Upfield demonstrated an increase in oral language development across all nine scales. The highest improvements were recorded on the oral language scales of RAPT (information) (8.8) and concepts (8.3). See Table 1 for a breakdown of the improvements in oral language development across the nine categories.
Table 1: Pre- and post-data collected in Upfield from children on 9 oral language scales
| Upfield | Rapt (info) /40 |
Rapt (gram) /37 |
Concepts /18 |
Body /9 |
Nouns /9 |
Verbs /9 |
Category /9 |
Functions /9 |
Prepositions /9 |
Pre-test |
11.7 |
5.2 |
8.6 |
3.6 |
2.5 |
3.5 |
2 |
1.5 |
0.5 |
Post-test |
20.5 |
13.4 |
13.5 |
4.6 |
3.4 |
6.1 |
4 |
3.9 |
2.4 |
Increase |
8.8 |
8.2 |
8.3 |
1 |
0.9 |
2.6 |
2 |
2.4 |
1.9 |
Children in Campbellfield demonstrated the similar pattern across all nine oral language scales. The highest improvements were recorded on the oral language scales of RAPT (information) (8.4) and RAPT (grammar) (6.7). See Table 2 for a breakdown of the changes in Campbellfield children’s oral language development across the nine categories.
Table 2: Pre- and post-data collected in campbellfield from children on 9 oral language scales
| C’field | Rapt (info) /40 |
Rapt (gram) /37 |
Concepts |
Body /9 |
Nouns /9 |
Verbs /9 |
Category /9 |
Functions /9 |
Prepositions /9 |
Pre-test |
18.4 |
11.9 |
12.1 |
4.3 |
3.7 |
5.8 |
3.1 |
3.3 |
0.6 |
Post-test |
26.8 |
18.6 |
15.2 |
6.4 |
4.5 |
7.9 |
5.1 |
4.6 |
3.9 |
Increase |
8.4 |
6.7 |
3.1 |
2.1 |
0.8 |
2.1 |
2 |
1.3 |
3.3 |
Example of Child Impact: “Yousuf”
The case study below clearly demonstrates the impact this program has had on a particular child.
Yousuf is a 4-year-old boy who comes from a non English speaking background. He has one sibling. His mother attended all 12 sessions in order to participate in the Language Enrichment Program. The sessions were delivered in English by the speech pathologist. Yousuf’s mother actively participated in the sessions and continued to play with the tubs in a similar manner at home, each week in both English and their home language.
The results from Yousuf’s initial language assessment (see Table 3) suggest that his level of expressive and receptive language is below what would be expected for his chronological age. The post-test data results reflect a significant improvement across all oral language scales. This progress and level of ability placed Yousuf in a much more advantageous position within his community and at school than if he had not attended the program.
Table 3: pre- and post-data for Yousuf on 9 oral language scales
| Yousuf w | Rapt info /40 |
Rapt-g |
Concepts |
Body |
Nouns |
Verbs |
Categories |
Functions |
Prepositions |
Pre-test |
11.5 |
3 |
8 |
4 |
3 |
4 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
Post-test |
23.5 |
16 |
15 |
5 |
4 |
9 |
6.5 |
4 |
4 |
Difference |
12 |
13 |
7 |
1 |
1 |
5 |
5.5 |
4 |
4 |
Notes:
Attended all 12 sessions
Age
Pre 4;5
Post 4;10
Concepts SS
Pre: 4
Post: 9
Home follow-up: very high in both languages
Tell me all about what the man is doing?
Pre-test: “Horse going faster.” Post-test: “The man is jumping over the gate.”
The speech pathologist observed additional changes for children attending the sessions. Many of the changes observed are valuable in a group educational environment.
Changes included:
- Children were learning how to be responsible for their own boxes. A parent reported that her child did not usually pack up their toys, but he guarded the box from the speech session and made sure that all toys went back in the box.
- The children were learning to be independent. They took charge of the toys. One parent reported: “My child has learnt to complete a task and sit in one position for longer.”
- The children were learning social interactions as well as learning vocabulary. They used “please” and “thank you”, and were asking questions of each other as well as learning how to share a toy with younger siblings.
Outcomes for parents
This program model placed a strong emphasis on parents teaching their children, through modelling from the speech pathologist and using a resource kit (oral language tubs) which could be taken home.
The activity collected feedback from a number of different sources to view parent outcomes. These included parent surveys (post session surveys conducted by the speech pathologist), community partner interview involving the speech pathologist and the school principal (conducted externally by the local evaluator) and through observations of the speech pathologist (obtained from quarterly reports).
Parent surveys
The program worked with 28 children aged 4–5 years and 28 parents and 14 siblings (babies and toddlers) attending. Of the parents, 6 were fathers and 22 were mothers. All parents attended with their children, with a small number missing one or two of the 12 sessions. The level of engagement in the program showed parents interest to give their child a good start to school.
Parent feedback was obtained through post session surveys. Out of the 28 parents accessing the program, 23 were surveyed. The following are some of their responses obtained from the surveys:
The program has given me an insight into how to ask appropriate questions in situations and to show my child different ways of looking at things.
It has made us aware of the importance of doing things right at first and that the spoken language has to be clear and understood, and that words are important.
I never knew that small words are so important in a sentence. I now realise that my son does not use them at all and my husband and I are learning to use them correctly.
I help him name things in the house.
My son is now describing buildings when we drive around. He says this one is tall, this one is short.
Congratulations on a program that is both fun and educational.
Very good for us because we don’t know how to use the words properly.
I learnt lots of English words myself. …I spend half an hour a day playing with my children.
Community partner interview
Community partners reported that the families enjoyed participating in the activity because:
- oral language tubs were accessible and engaging;
- parents spent more time playing with their child due to involvement in the activity; and
- parents were learning about the language and literacy needs of their child.
For many parents, involvement in the activity provided affirmation for what they were doing in the home. It provided families with social interaction and a feeling that they were not alone (social isolation was reported as an issue for the target group).
The community partners also reported the following changes have been observed with families who have been involved in this activity:
- Parents have showed increased willingness over time to participate in the groups.
- There has been a reduction in the number of distressed pre-aged children at the commencement of school year, which has been attributed to the children feeling more comfortable with the school environment.
- Some parents were able to understand the link between kindergarten, language group sessions and school. Parents are now connected to the school.
Observations of the speech pathologist
Most of the parent outcomes have been mentioned above. The following are extra parent outcomes observed by the speech pathologist:
- Parents realised how important “little words” were (vocabulary, concepts, position words) and that “play” is “learning” and how important it is to talk with their children. They were surprised that their child did not use these words well and that they needed to learn the proper use of others themselves. They realised that these skills were very important to the development of language and later literacy skills.
- Parents reported an increased understanding of methods (existing and new) used to boost their child’s language.
- Children have improved skills in social interactions, following instructions and completion of a task.
- Younger siblings are also benefiting from the program as they are involved in the oral language activities during the session and at home.
- One parent transcribed each English sentence into Arabic orthography in order to use the correct words with their child.
Policy analysis
The Early Years Language and Literacy Program demonstrate strong policy congruence with the objectives of SFCS. While the data available on the program was only for a 12-month period, the range of evidence on positive outcomes—from child assessment, parent survey, community partner interim evaluation is consistent in confirming positive outcomes from this practice with CALD children and their families.
Within the policy framework it is concluded that:
- The program is a good model for local schools, especially those committed to kindergarten programs.
- The kits (oral language tubs) that had been developed within this activity were sustainable as they can be used in already established and trialled primary schools.
- The program involved 28 children and contributed to them having a good start in life as presented in the pre and post testing data.
It is hard to tell at this stage the long-term impact of the program on parents, but it is expected that the increased parental knowledge and skills will empower them to ask for more resources from their child’s future teachers and will continue to do so throughout their child’s schooling. It is hoped that the increased awareness of the importance of play and interacting with their child and the social connections made along the way will remain sustainable.
Evaluation
The Early Years Language and Literacy Program was internally evaluated as part of the speech therapy methodology. The results of this internal evaluation are provided above in the Section on Outcomes.
The Early Years Language and Literacy Program has also been externally evaluated as part of a large evaluation exercise exploring progress and documenting evidence with regard to 23 CfC activities undertaken by the Centre for Community Child Health, Royal Children’s Hospital Melbourne in partnership with Broadmeadows Early Years Partnership. An interim evaluation report was released in 2007. The findings of that evaluation are positive.
Project related publications
See Section on Research
References
Australian Early Development Index. (2005). Building better communities for children. Community result 2004–05. Centre for Community Child Health & Telethon Institute for Child Health Research.
Boethel, M. (2004). Readiness: School, family and community connections, National Center for Family and Community Connections with Schools, Southwest Educational Development Laboratory. Brostrom, S. (2005). Transition problems and play as a transitory activity. Australian Journal of Early Childhoo, 30(3), 17–25.
Farrar, E., Goldfeld, S., & Moore, T. (2006). School readiness (ARACY Topical Paper). Perth, Western Australia: Australian Research Alliance for Children and Youth.
Shonkoff, J. P., & Phillips, D. A. (2000). From neurons to neighborhoods: The science of early childhood development. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.
The Future of Children, 15(1). (2005). Special issue. School readiness: Closing racial and ethnic gaps.
Contact
Colleen Turner
Project Manager
Phone: (03) 9351 3640
Email: bcarecfc@vicnet.net.au
Website
N/A
More information
More information on the Promising Practice Profiles can be found on the Communities and Families Clearinghouse Australia website.