News And Events

Teaching Strategies for Oral Language Development

Here's some teaching strategies we use to support children to learn oral language. These are easy for the whole family to do at home too!

• Talking about a new book before starting to read it, such as asking children questions about the words and characters in a new story. 
• Linking stories to previous outings and learning activities, such as helping children to recall the different things they saw on their last bush walk when reading a book about nature. 
• Linking books to children’s life and home experiences. 
• Actively using new words from popular books. This ties into choosing books that match or overlap with current interests.
• Being intentional about the books that are accessible and available.  
• Adding in extra detail when reading a book more than once. 
• Encouraging and facilitating peer book-reading. Encouraging tuakana-teina interactions between older and younger children with diverse vocabularies. 
• Using puppets, magnets, or blocks to creatively retell stories.  
• Acting out stories as a group.
• Displaying familiar books at children’s eye level to promote rereading. 

Some children with additional needs do best when the learning environment is managed to reduce sensory load from lighting, movement and sounds. We can change the sensory load for a child by:

• having quiet times or spaces in a room
• preparing for a transition from one place to another
• reducing visual clutter in a display.

Creating an open and supportive atmosphere where the child feels comfortable communicating is the first step. Encourage them to express themselves in any way they can, whether through speech, gestures, or alternative communication methods.

Source: https://tewhariki.tahurangi.education.govt.nz/understanding-oral-language and  https://essentialeducationgroup.com/supporting-speech-development-for-neurodiverse-children/

The Ministry of Education resource, Much More Than Words, is a booklet that provides information about children’s communication development so you can think about how your child is talking and support them, using their skills and interests. Here's the link to download a copy or read online -  https://seonline.tki.org.nz/Media/Files/L-Z/Much-More-than-Words