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Speaker 1: The Education Review Office has found that too many kids

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Speaker 1: are starting school without the language skills that they need

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Speaker 1: and remember, before you read or write, you speak. Nearly

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Speaker 1: two thirds of teachers in ecees and new entrant classes

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Speaker 1: say COVID is to blame. Meanwhile, I found half of

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Speaker 1: parents don't get updates on where their kid is at

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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.

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Speaker 2: Hi Kelly, morning, Ryan, How are you really good?

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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.

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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

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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

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Speaker 2: us had to use, a lot of people need to use,

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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.

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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

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Speaker 2: of that engagement and that interaction and that we have

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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

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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

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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

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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.

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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

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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

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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

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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

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Speaker 2: same time they're interacting with their friends and we'll look

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Speaker 2: at the language development. Look how they were negotiating how

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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?

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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

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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

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Speaker 2: area for early childhood where we can look at how

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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

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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

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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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