Robinvale District Health Services Oral Language Kit

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Robinvale District Health ServicesOral Language
Kit

• Gayle Farnsworth, Best Start Facilitator
• Ruth Fox, Speech Pathologist

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The Project

• The Language kit project began with the funding
  provided by Contact Inc to the Robinvale/ Euston
  community.
• Consultation with pre-school and school staff
  indicated poor oral language skills were one of
  the biggest issues facing these children.
• Oral language skills at school entry are strongly
  related to school success and literacy
  development.
• The traditional intervention approach would have
  been for the speech pathologist to work with
  small groups of children in the school/
  pre-school.

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Language Kits

• A 2005 RDHS study demonstrated childrens oral
  language skills could be significantly improved
  through a pre-school curriculum with an oral
  language focus
• It was decided to develop kits of
  self-contained language activities.
• The development of these language kits was seen
  as a way of supporting language development
  through the childrens environment child-care,
  pre-school and school.
• RDHS has supported the project by providing the
  labor costs for the development of the
  activities, and the construction of the kits.

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The Kits

• Three kits were created. A pre-school kit, a
  combination kit and a school-age kit.
• The kits consists of activities used by speech
  pathologists , including some commercially
  available activities.
• Each activity consists of an envelope containing
  instructions, the language goal, variations and
  the required equipment. If anything additional is
  needed, it is clearly stated.

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Language skills

• The kits have been designed to address a range of
  language skills, from children in the early
  stages of learning English, to children learning
  to produce complex sentences and stories.
• Activities work on both receptive language
  (understanding) , expressive language (what
  children are able to say) and social (using
  language to communicate with others) skills.
• The activities are in a roughly developmental
  order, the first activities are easiest, and the
  last activities are hardest.

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Specific skills targeted

• Naming
• Following directions
• Developing vocabulary
• Asking and answering questions
• Describing
• Logical reasoning
• Storytelling

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Using the kit

• The activities can be carried out in small groups
  of about four children. The teacher will select
  the group of children, and the activity to be
  carried out. The activity can then be carried out
  by the teacher, assistant or helper.
• All activities are quick to set up and play.
• Most activities have several examples

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Adjusting the activities

• Flexible activities allow the same activities to
  be used with different groups of children, by
  changing the instructions/ expectations
• Children should be achieving success
  approximately 80-90 of the time.
• The group leader provides a language model, using
  sentences slightly longer than the children

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Adjusting activities

• Strategies for making tasks easier include
• Make instructions shorter
• Accept shorter responses
• Ask for a group response, instead of each child
  responding in turn.
• Strategies for making tasks more difficult
  include
• - Make instructions longer
• - Make instructions more specific.
• Strategies for reducing the length of the
  activity include
• - Playing games as a group, instead of
  individuals.
• - Playing games in teams.

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The project

• Created 10 kits
• 2 speech pathology 3 pre-schools
• 2 child care centres 3 schools
• Launch held outlining the aims of the kits
• Staff were given an opportunity to use the kits
  with groups of children, with the guidance of the
  speech pathologist

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Initial feedback

• Surveys were conducted at the launch.
• Initial feedback was overwhelmingly positive.
• Feedback highlighted the following features
• Easy to use, everything you need is there
• I like the way you can do a range of variations
  with the one activity and take it through the
  various levels
• I can see this kit covering a full years course
  of oral language development
• Weve been needing something like this for so
  long

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After the launch

• Individual training was offered to each centre.
• This training was provided by the speech
  pathologists, and followed the structure
  requested by the individual centre.

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Further evaluation

• 6 month follow up
• 100 felt
• Confident using kit
• Easy to use
• Children responded positively
• 83
• Use kit daily or several time as week
• 66
• Felt kit was flexible enough to meet most
  childrens needs
• Planned evaluation of beginning and end of year
  oral language skills

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Project Expansion

• 5 kits produced for Wentworth/ Dareton area
• Generated unexpected level of interest, Kits now
  being created for sale beyond immediate area.
• Project complemented by production of local TV
  commercial, promoting the need to talk to
  children at home.

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Summary

• Teachers within the community identified poor
  language skills as a concern.
• Oral language skills are strongly linked to
  school success and literacy development.
• It is possible to improve language outcomes at
  pre-school through an oral language focus in the
  curriculum.
• The kit provides a tool for teachers and day
  carers to use to support childrens oral language
  skills within their everyday environment.