Developing Children's Language & Literacy Skills – Teacher Talk Program

Research is increasingly showing that children develop language and literacy skills through natural, responsive, interactions with adults.

With increasing numbers of children spending time in care away from their parents, Queensland Health speech pathologist Robyn Skerrett says that this gives early childhood educators an important role in facilitating children's social, language and literacy development

'Encouraging this development serves the critical role of prevention and enrichment: It provides a protective mechanism for children from disadvantaged backgrounds and enhances the skills of children from stimulating and secure home environments,' she said.

The courses take place in Brisbane in October and November and are designed for:

Teachers and teacher aides employed in child care settings, kindergartens, prep classes and ECDU classes.
Group leaders and assistants in child care settings and
Family day care workers

In response to this need Ms Skerrett and a team of speech pathologists are offering child care workers across the country an opportunity to participate in 'Teacher Talk' a three part training program designed to help early childhood educators better understand adult-child interaction so as to stimulate enhanced language, behavioural and social outcomes for children.

The programs were designed by Canadian organisation, Hanen (www.hanen.org) and are among a wide range of courses being delivered by speech pathologists throughout Australia.

Ms Skerrett said Teacher Talk has been running since 2006.

"We have had great success and great interest in this program and are currently participating in a federally funded project to train as many day care providers as possible at the Gold Coast," she said.

The training modules are described in more detail below:

Part A: Encouraging Language Development in Early Childhood Settings
This is a prerequisite for the other two courses in the series and addresses how educators can use everyday conversations, play and daily routines to promote children's communication and social development.

In addition, the training addresses how educators can better meet the needs of all children, including those with language delays and those who are second language learners.

Part B: Letting Language Lead the Way to Literacy
As caregivers of young children, teachers have a crucial role to play in preparing preschoolers for school and in laying foundations for the development of reading and writing skills.

Research has demonstrated that high quality, developmentally attuned interactions between teachers and children are associated with later literacy success.

This module discusses the important links between oral language development and literacy and provides practical strategies teachers can use to pave the way for reading and writing.

Part C: Fostering Peer Interaction in Early Childhood Settings
Playing with peers is a wonderful and very important part of childhood and what children learn from playing with others has an enormous impact on their social and language development.

However, children with poor language and social skills may have trouble initiating and maintaining interactions with peers, and may find themselves left out and socially isolated.

This module addresses the ways early childhood educators can provide a physical and social environment that encourages peer interaction and creates plenty of opportunities for successful interactions with other children.

According to Ms Skerrett early childhood educators who completed Teacher Talk noticed the children in their care demonstrated increases in:

Verbal productivity; creating an ideal environment for language growth since this encourages more feedback and conversation from teachers.
Use of multi-word sentences
Use of varied vocabulary
Peer interaction; important for acquiring language and social skills
Use of abstract language; important in cognitive development and success in the classroom during school years
Use of verbal print references; helping children develop formal literacy skills

In addition, teachers who finished the training report that they:

Talked more to the children
Encouraged more conversational turn taking
Used books to facilitate conversation rather than just reading the text
Encouraged more face-to-face interactions
Increased their use of verbal supports for peer interactions
Increased their use of abstract language
Increased their use of print references

For more information email Ms Skerrett