Much More Than Words

Introduction

Statement of belief

"Communication is vital for children to be able to contribute their strengths and interests, to find out what they want to know, and to take increasing responsibility for their own learning and care." (Te Whāriki)

Links with Te Whāriki

The material in this publication is grounded in the four principles and five strands of Te Whāriki. Whilst communication is a strand in its own right in Te Whāriki, educators will be aware that communication is an integral part of the other four strands.

Much More Than Words is based on the belief that every child needs opportunities to develop essential communication skills. Te Whāriki is the framework for early childhood education centres to provide these opportunities for all children.

Much More Than Words provides strategies for early childhood educators to help children who need additional support.

Much More Than Words will help early childhood educators to identify the children requiring additional specialist support.

Objectives

Much More Than Words will:

• Raise educators awareness of normal communication development
• Build educator confidence in the ability to reassure parents when there is not a problem
• Assist educators to identify potential communication difficulties
• Provide educators with strategies to meet the needs of individuals with communication difficulties
• Establish effective collaborative practices between educators, parents and Ministry of Education, Special Education (GSE), and Early Intervention teams.

Definitions

Learning to talk involves the development and interaction of many different skills. Although all the elements of communication are inextricably linked, they fall into four broad areas:

• Speech Sounds: the sounds and sequences of sounds that are used for talking. The coordination and strength of mouth muscles is an important factor in speech production
• Language: the words and patterns of words that are used to relate meaning and communicate ideas and thoughts. Language includes things such as; sentence length, vocabulary, grammar, understanding of what is said and the social use of language; for example, greeting, staying on topic, asking and answering questions
• Voice: the sound made by the vocal folds (cords) vibrating. Voice includes volume, pitch, resonance, intonation and overall quality
• Fluency: the smooth, rapid, effortless use of speech and language. `Dysfluency' is stuttering.