30 August 2024

You may have seen or heard in the news last week that the recent Education Review Office (ERO) research highlighted both excessive screen time and the impact of Covid-19 having a hugely detrimental impact on children's oral language development.

See some of the messaging below:

"Teachers told us that social communication was particularly impacted by Covid-19, particularly language skills for social communication. International studies confirm the significant impact of Covid-19 on language development", the report said.

"Children's vocabulary at the age of two was strongly linked to their literacy and numeracy at age 12", the ERO report said.

"Delays in oral language in the early years are reflected in poor reading comprehension at school", it said.

However, it also said "children's oral language varied a lot up to the first two years of primary school because children's development varied." 

(from RNZ website)

At the same time this was highlighted in the news, we were recrafting our stance on the use of digital technologies for our website and associated material. Please see here:

At Worser Bay School we have a considered approach towards the use of digital technologies. Our thinking is aligned with our whole person wellbeing philosophy which includes strong messaging around the importance of physical and emotional health. We know a lot more now than we ever did about brain science and this lays the foundation for our decision making.

On the other hand, we also have a responsibility to support our children to be digitally literate and responsible users by the time they leave us in Year 6, as per the New Zealand Curriculum. Therefore, in our Junior school you will not see children actively using  technology until nearing the end of Year 3, unless there is a need to provide additional support to a learner with assistive technology or engaged in an activity like forming a beat with garage band for a wider musical performance. As children progress through the Senior area of the school, they increasingly use digital technology as an additional learning tool to enhance learning opportunities, to collaborate, to research and to connect with a wider audience both information sharing and gathering. 

As I meet with parents who have children about to start school, I have noticed increasing concern from them about the use of technology in the younger years and the sigh of relief when I detail our philosophy.

Like most things in life, it's finding the balance and knowing the why.