Language program takes off

A pilot program run in 13 Great Southern schools last year to improve the language skills of primary students will continue in an effort to address the region’s lower than State average performance in language and communication.

More than 160 kindergarten and at-risk students up to Year 3 are taking part in the kindergarten oral language program, with schools in Katanning, Gnowangerup, Kojonup, Borden, Broomehill, Nyabing, Ongerup, Pingrup, Tambellup and Woodanilling involved.

The program is a partnership between WA Country Health Service, the Department of Education and the Young Men’s Christian Association, and received $217,000 funding last year from the $565 million Southern Inland Health Initiative through Royalties for Regions.

WACHS senior speech pathologist Jan Batchelor works with speech pathologists Amy Ludin and Sarah Cross, and therapy assistants Sam McKay and Karen Anderson to develop and deliver the program in participating classrooms.

Mrs Batchelor said the program was ideal for the region, which has a high culturally and linguistically diverse population — especially in Katanning — and a high indigenous population.

One of the reasons the program was important was because many at-risk families do not access health services on a reliable basis due to their language and communication difficulties, she said.

“We decided to go to the schools and build capacity there,” she said.

“Children need to be competent in their verbal language skills before they can be competent learning to read, write and spell, which is why our program is oral based.”

According to the 2012 Australian Early Development Index, Katanning and surrounding areas were above the State average for learning vulnerability in children.

The statistics showed 15.7 per cent of children were vulnerable in language and cognition, higher than WA’s rate of 8.6 per cent, and 17.1 per cent of the region’s children were higher in vulnerability than the State average of 9.1 per cent in communication skills and general knowledge.

Braeside Primary School kindergarten teacher Estelle Le Roux praised the program’s effectiveness and the time it saved teachers on class preparation.

“(Teachers are) very busy with preparing programs … they have planned everything,” she said.

“It’s very rewarding, last year we had a lot of kids that could read by the end of the year.

Life will be so much easier down the track for both the kids and teachers as the time and money has been put into these crucial years.”