Decline in children’s ability to speak and understand language

Stuff, 19 July 2024

More children are starting school unable to speak in full sentences, a Nelson primary school principal says.

Stoke School principal Sarah Davies said many would use the word “thing” to describe specific objects. About a third of new entrants at the school had poor oracy; the ability to speak or understand spoken language, she estimated.

Research indicated it was a familiar picture nationwide, the group Oracy Aotearoa New Zealand (OANZ) said.

“More and more tamariki are starting school with fewer and fewer words,” spokesperson Mary Ellen O’Connor said.

Up to 70% of new school entrants in some pockets of the country were identified as having low oracy, she said.

The skill was vital for children’s learning, including how to read, write and do maths, she said.

“If you don’t know that that thing over there is a table, there’s not much point in trying to teach you t-a-b-l-e.”

There was a “desperate need to get these children using language” for plenty more reasons, O’Connor said.

“It’s the key to personal confidence, ability to relate to others and ultimately to succeed in education and in life.”

The Nelson-based group wants an oral language programme, known as HPP, to be taken up more widely in education settings across Aotearoa – to “ensure appropriate resourcing of low oracy three- to six-year-olds”.

Some primary schools in the Nelson region already used the one-to-one learning programme, first developed 25 years ago.

OANZ is calling for volunteers to deliver it with selected children in early childhood settings in Nelson and Motueka, to help get the ball rolling. The programme involved using illustration-rich books with very little text, created for the New Zealand context, O’Connor said.

A tutor – in this case the volunteer – would talk to the child about the pictures and read the text, making several statements about what was happening, and then asking a gentle question.

“What we need to do is first of all provide those kids with enough words to come back at us with a little bit of language. And so we build on that, and go to the next question.”

The child was then asked to retell the story simply – its beginning, middle and end.

Tutor training would take place over two half days in August. The pilot programmes would run for 10 weeks, from September to November. Volunteers were needed for an hour a day, three days a week, and would need a police check.

Poor oracy was a major inequity issue for children – and an intergenerational one in some areas, where their parents also had low oracy, O’Connor said. Factors contributing to low oracy in children included “not enough talk in the household”, she said.

“Their parents may well have not enough time, they can be working two or three jobs, kids are plugged into devices too early on.”

Other factors included access to early childhood education and health issues, like glue ear, Davies said.

Ministry of Education support for oracy before school was “something that continues to need to grow”, Davies said.

The pilot programme would run at Motueka Kindergarten and the early childhood centre at Nelson’s Auckland Point school.

“If you live in Nelson/Tasman and have a bit of spare time, OANZ would love to hear from you,” O’Connor said.

People interested in joining the programme in Nelson could call Toshi on 0276355827, and for the programme in Motueka, Karena on 0211338195.