Pirihira-Piper Taikato, 4 with volunteer tutor Clare Holmes. Photo: RNZ / Samantha Gee
Three days a week, Clare Holmes heads to Victory Square Kindergarten in Nelson to help 4-year-old Pirihira-Piper Taikato become a more confident speaker.
Holmes is one of a group of volunteers working one-on-one with kids to nurture strong oracy skills - through a pilot programme in the top of the South Island to help tamariki improve their speech skills before they start school.
Oracy is defined as the ability to express oneself fluently and grammatically in speech.
The programme is an initiative of Nelson-based charitable organisation Oracy Aotearoa and co-ordinator Toshi Phillips said it aimed to help children become more confident communicators by improving their language skills and increasing their vocabulary.
Each volunteer works with two children, one-on-one, for about 20 minutes, three times a week at two kindergartens in Nelson and Motueka.
"The programme is based around looking together at a book but it is not a reading programme. It is very much about the conversation that happens about the book and engaging the child in the book by talking about the pictures and their own experiences.
"It's part of our mission to promote the understanding of oracy, because we believe it is really important for children's learning, it's basically the ability to use and understand spoken language."
Oracy Aotearoa co-ordinator Toshi Phillips. Photo: RNZ / Samantha Gee
It comes after research showed children have fewer and fewer words when they arrive in the classroom - with some schools saying up to 20 percent of new entrants are struggling with oral language.
Phillips said oracy was an essential foundation for learning.
"There is so much focus on literacy and numeracy, but without oracy, that learning can't even start because teaching is so language based.
"We like to say we are on a mission to democratise oracy, you don't need to have special skills, it is as simple as talking to your children and anyone can do it."
In Christchurch, it has been reported that more than 60 percent of new entrants in some low-decile schools are struggling to express themselves in words.
New programme starting at Nelson kindergartens to help improve speech skills
Victory Kindergarten teacher Bex Krammer said lots of factors contribute to a child's language development.
"We tried to choose a number of children that were on different ends of the scale, some of them needing support and more confidence and others trying to develop that rich language more.
"It's about building confidence in speaking to others and developing conversations as some children are not confident to speak."
Victory Square Kindergarten teachers Leanne Ridsdale and Bex Krammer. Photo: RNZ / Samantha Gee
She said it had been a joy to see the tamariki engaged in the one-on-one sessions. Once they became confident speakers, she said the flow-on effect with their other learning was noticeable.
Evey McAuliffe is one of those who put their hand up to get involved after the organisation put the call out for volunteer tutors earlier in the year.
"My background is that I was a paediatric occupational therapist and now I am retired, my time is my own and I thought it's a really worthwhile project for me to give some time to."
Half way through the 10-week programme, the kids she tutors are always pleased to see her and will now start conversations unprompted.
Tutor Evey McAuliffe with Mikaela Lavemaau, 4 at Victory Square Kindergarten. Photo: RNZ / Samantha Gee
Research from the Education Review Office recently found some new entrant school children could not talk in sentences of more than four or five words, spent a lot of time on devices and had little interaction with books.
"It's a frightening statistic actually and it is not so difficult to engage children in conversation but our society is always evolving and it is good there is research on this because it is a wake-up call to all of us to actually engage in meaningful conversation."
McAuliffe said there was no reason the programme could not be rolled out in kindergartens across the motu.
"We have an ageing population, we have people like me with good heart and time on our hands and ability and experience and we can just go in there and make a difference, it's not rocket science."
The pilot programme is being evaluated by Waikato University's research centre Poutama Pounamu, led by Professor Mere Berryman, with hopes it can be rolled out more widely.