Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Kelly Seaburg: New Shoots Children's Centre director on the concerns over pre-school children's literacy skills

Transcript

Kelly Seaburg: New Shoots Children's Centre director on the concerns over pre-school children's literacy skills · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: The Education Review Office has found that too many kids
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: are starting school without the language skills that they need
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: and remember, before you read or write, you speak. Nearly
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: two thirds of teachers in ecees and new entrant classes
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: say COVID is to blame. Meanwhile, I found half of
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: parents don't get updates on where their kid is at
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: with language development. Kelly Seberg is with Newshoots Children's Center.
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  Speaker 1: She's the director there and she's with us this morning.
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: Hi Kelly, morning, Ryan, How are you really good?
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: Thank you, thanks for being with me. Is this what
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  Speaker 1: you're seeing that kids are increasingly struggling with the language
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  Speaker 1: part thanks to COVID.
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: There's a little bit. I mean, I think what's interesting
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  Speaker 2: is the report does confirm that eighty percent of children
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  Speaker 2: are doing well, but there are twenty percent of children
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  Speaker 2: who are struggling with oral language. And I think we
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: can say over time, you know, since COVID nineteen, we
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  Speaker 2: have seen the impact on oral language development. I think
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  Speaker 2: with sometimes the use of screens, which a lot of
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: us had to use, a lot of people need to use,
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: over that time, we do see that there does seem
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  Speaker 2: to have been a bit of an impact, and that
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  Speaker 2: is why ECE has a really strong place to play
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  Speaker 2: in and parents. You know, it really is around as
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  Speaker 2: us working together to ensure children's or language as improved
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  Speaker 2: because what we know is that old language at two
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  Speaker 2: is a strong predictor of their literacy and numeracy achievement
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  Speaker 2: at twelve. So it's really really critical totally.
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: It's it's literally the well not quite literally, but it's
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  Speaker 1: the learning to crawl before you can walk, right, is
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  Speaker 1: it when the kids were in lockdown? Is it the
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  Speaker 1: fact they were on screens or is it the fact
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  Speaker 1: that they weren't talking to their you know, their buddies
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  Speaker 1: at the ECE centers.
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  Speaker 2: That's right, it's all of that together. So I mean
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  Speaker 2: it's you know, they were more isolated from each other.
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  Speaker 2: Parents are probably trying to work from home. So all
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: of that engagement and that interaction and that we have
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: when we're talking with our teachers and with our peers
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  Speaker 2: that definitely reduced significantly. And so you know, this is
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: the issues that we had with the ongoing impact from
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  Speaker 2: COVID nineteen. But what is I think what's important is
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  Speaker 2: we've got some really great tools and I think having
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  Speaker 2: a focus on it just means that we can really
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  Speaker 2: hone in on this area because it's really deserving of
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: our attention given the impact that we know it has
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  Speaker 2: long term.
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  Speaker 1: Why are parents being updated on where their kids are at?
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  Speaker 2: I think we haven't had. What happens in early childhood
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  Speaker 2: services is we have most services report using these learning
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  Speaker 2: stories and it's a really great way of capturing the
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  Speaker 2: fulsomeness of a child and looking at their development against
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  Speaker 2: what we call t Partakey which is our New Zealand
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  Speaker 2: curriculum for early childhood and in that teachers will read,
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  Speaker 2: you know, the language that children are learning. So whether
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: or not the parents are seeing that being reported to
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  Speaker 2: the learning stories may be different across the sector.
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: Kelly, what's learning story? Is that like an apppus or
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  Speaker 1: something to update?
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  Speaker 2: No, it's a way it's so parents will be familiar
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: with it is a story about their child. So it's
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  Speaker 2: a nice way of saying the way a teacher is
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  Speaker 2: writing up about that child's learning development. What seeing So
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  Speaker 2: they're observing a child, for example, and how the learning
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  Speaker 2: is coming through their play. So it is a teacher's
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  Speaker 2: resort development.
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  Speaker 1: Is it where they said Johnny likes playing with Sarah
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  Speaker 1: and Tom and but maybe is struggling to speak properly
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  Speaker 1: or is it that specific?
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  Speaker 2: It can be. It can be really looking at hey,
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  Speaker 2: look you're seeing a child interacting so with blocks, and
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: they're saying what is actually going on here? And they're
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  Speaker 2: showing actually the child's development through Look at how they're
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: actually using their different pieces together and that's actually part
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  Speaker 2: of maths as well as building construction. But at the
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: same time they're interacting with their friends and we'll look
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: at the language development. Look how they were negotiating how
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: to build that tower. So that's how it's really trying
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  Speaker 2: to show parents the learning that's going through play.
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  Speaker 1: Do you think that's that's good?
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  Speaker 2: An?
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: I mean, I'm I would probably be confused as a parent.
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  Speaker 1: I would think about where my kid was that if
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: it was through a learning story.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, And I think there are some areas that can
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  Speaker 2: be improved and some ways in which it makes it
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  Speaker 2: more explicit for pearans. And I think that's a real
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: area for early childhood where we can look at how
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: can we make this more accessible for parents. So what's
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  Speaker 2: really great is over the last couple of years, the
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  Speaker 2: Ministry of Education has been working on a framework and
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  Speaker 2: it's called cour Fichy occupy, and part of that has
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  Speaker 2: been we've had the social and emotional strand and I
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  Speaker 2: understand the Minister is going to have some announcements shortly
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  Speaker 2: because they've been working on the literacy, which is oral
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: language as well and numerously strands for the last couple
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  Speaker 2: of years.
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  Speaker 1: Right, So there's a lot of work to be done
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: in the space to try and improve that reporting. And
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  Speaker 1: it sounds like Kelly, you're up to the challenge, which
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  Speaker 1: is good. Kelly c Berg with us, the director of
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  Speaker 1: Newshoots Children Center.
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• 4:57
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