Screening for success

(THEME) 00:03

Annalise

Hi, I'm Annalise...

Hrisanthi

I'm Hrisanthi...

Rosie

I'm Rosie...

Christy 00:08

I'm Christy...

Honor

And I'm Honor... and we're the hosts of the podcast Literacy Legends.

?Host

As a Tasmanian, when you hear the word literacy, what springs to mind?

?Host 00:19

I bet it's the statistic that almost half of Tasmanian adults lack the literacy skills they need to get by day to day.

?Host 00:27

It's worrying,

?Host 00:28

So we wanted to know what's being done about it. Is literacy as big as a challenge, as they say it is?

?Host 00:37

Well, yes, it seems to be. But are there stories of hope? You bet there are.

?Host 00:43

We travelled Tasmania to find just some of the people who are working hard to improve these stats. 

?Host

They're stories worth celebrating, of hope and progress, and their projects are making a real difference in people's lives.

?Host 01:05

Join us in this series about literacy in Tasmania. 

?Host

Episode Three - Screening for Success.

Jodie 01:15

We screen all the children. We identify the children that may be at risk, then the children that have been identified get extra opportunities to participate in those activities.  

Melissa 01:26

Okay, let's have a go. The cat is washing herself.

Student 01:29

The cat is washing herself.

Melissa 01:31

The dog is licked by the cat.

Student 01:34

The dog is licked by the cat.

Melissa 01:37

The cat is washing him.

Student 01:38

The cat is washing them.

Melissa 

Well done... [FADES OUT]

Melissa 01:40

You are doing such a great job for everyone. My name is Melissa Lawrence, and I'm the kinder teacher here at Bowen road Primary School. This is a kinder classroom here behind our gum tree. There we have our fairy tale table. At the moment, it is Little Miss Muffet, so we have a doll and our gorgeous (ta) Jody has made a little tuffet.

Jodie 02:22

Hi, I'm Jodie Upton. I'm the Manager of Programs and Projects for the Department of Education, Children and Young People.

Hrisanthi 02:28

Thanks for inviting us into the school today. Jodie, when we were researching about what's being done to tackle literacy in Tasmania, we heard about a program called GAPS. Can you just explain what that is, please? 

Jodie 02:40

Yeah, absolutely. So GAPS stands for the Grammar And Phonology Screen, and it's a screen that can be done with young children, just to pick up if there are any issues that particularly might pertain to their learning for reading. It will pick up things called developmental language disorders, which aren't always easy to recognise. And it's a really fun screen. So it's very playful. It involves a little alien called Bic. We tell the children that Bic can't understand adults, he can only understand children. Then the children read Bic a story, and then they have a go at saying some words in Bic's language. So it gives us an opportunity, in a very playful way to do a quick and easy check to make sure children are progressing as we would want them to, so that they're really ready to learn to read when they get into prep.

Melissa 03:31

Okay, if you are sitting on a red dot, can you please go and line up by the front door? 

Hi, Freddie, hello. How are you?

Student

Good.

Melissa 03:40

Do you think you can help me tell Bic the alien some stories? 

Student

Okay, yeah.

Melissa

Sound good? 

Student

Yep.

Melissa

Okay, let's have a go. The cat is washing herself.

Student 03:54

The cat is washing herself.

Melissa 03:59

The dog is licked by the cat.

Student 04:01

The dog is licked by the cat.

Melissa 04:06

The cat is washing him.

Student 04:07

The cat is washing him.

Melissa 04:09

You are doing such a great job. Freddie, well done. Can you say to Bic, Who did the cat wash?

Student 04:18

Who did the cat wash?

Hrisanthi 04:22

So Mel, can you just tell us what signs you're actually looking for? 

Melissa 04:25

There are two parts to the screen. First part is, the child repeats the story that I have said to the alien. And for there, we're looking at whether or not the child repeats certain words of the sentence, which, for the teacher are in bold for us to realise and to understand. And that might be like, prepositions or pronouns and things like that that we're looking for, that the child misses or uses differently, replaces with their own different words. And in the second part, we actually give the children nonsense words. And ask them to repeat it, which is pretending that it's Bic's language. And we're looking at whether or not the children can repeat those specific sounds in those words, whether or not they can hear them, and then, yeah, relay them to the alien. 

05:13

Forkesta. 

Student

Forkester.

Melissa

Pedreppa.

Student

Pedreppa.

Melissa

And... Defrimple. 

Student

Defrimple.

Melissa

Good boy, that's it. What's some crazy words they are. Which one was your favorite?

Student

... Dimple.

Melissa

[LAUGHS] Dimple, that's a good one. De frimple, well done. Freddie, say Thanks Bic. 

Student

Thanks Bic. 

Melissa

I think you enjoyed you telling the stories. Thank you for helping.

Hrisanthi 05:40

So can a teacher actually tell there are delays just by listening to the child speaking?

Melissa 05:46

Definitely, in some aspects, they can, but a lot of these things that the GAPS are screening for, we don't generally pick up as easily like I don't think I would ever refer a child to a speech and language pathologist if they couldn't repeat nonsense words. But now, looking into all that research, I realise that that repeating of the nonsense words is so important when it comes to decoding and all that sort of stuff for that early reading. 

Hrisanthi 06:12

How do delays in learning to read and write actually impact a child's self esteem?

Melissa 06:18

More ways than I can mention, really - especially if they're behind and their peers are all off and running and writing and reading, they really feel like they're not good enough, almost, and that they can't keep up. And quite often, children will compensate in other ways that might be less desirable. They want to belong. They want to join in. They want to be the same as their friends. And if they can't do what the others are, then, yeah, it crushes them, to be honest, it really has such a profound effect.

Hrisanthi 06:50

So how do we know the GAPS screener is accurate? 

Jodie 06:52

So that's one of the benefits of having gaps the gap screen is that all the work has already been done in knowing that. So a team in the United Kingdom actually created the screen and did lots and lots of research on how effective it is. So we know from that research that it works. 

Hrisanthi 07:12

So how did we actually measure previously?

Melissa 07:15

We didn't, it was down simply to teach observation. And I've noticed that from doing this screen, it's definitely picked up some things that I would not have picked up in the general classroom, so these children would have missed out on that potential extra help.

Hrisanthi 07:32

And what happens when the screening process actually shows child needs help? 

Melissa 07:37

The first thing that we do is put in a referral to the speech and language pathologist, because the screen shows that there is a deficit in some of their learning, but doesn't identify how or why that child has the deficit. So that's where our speech and language pathologist comes in, and she can do run her tests.

Jodie 07:53

Bowen Road is very lucky in that that they have a speech and language pathologist who's been very available throughout the process and being able to work with Mel quite closely on those children. We know that's not the case for every school across the state. What we've been able to do for those schools is say, Okay, we screen all the children. We identify the children that may be at risk. We have an educator guide that has lots of activities in it, so the teachers do those activities with the whole class, but then the children that have been identified get extra opportunities to participate in those activities. So they're getting that extra support by being in small groups or individual using that resource guide. 

And then about halfway through term three, we re screen those children, because what we've found is, for a lot of children, just being in a kindergarten classroom and doing those extra things is actually enough, when we re screen, that they then go above that 15th percentile. For the children who in that second screen still are below that 15th percentile, that's where we really know, from a classroom perspective, we've done as much as we can, and that's where that referral goes on to the speech and language pathologist. We're reducing the number of children being referred because we've already done that step in the middle, and they can really target their time into those children. So that's helping the system as well. 

But in a really great ideal situation. It's exactly like it is here at Bowen Road, where the speech and language pathologist is available and willing to be in from that very first screen library.

Sophie 09:38

My name is Sophie Silver. My son's name is Oscar Williams. Oscar is in Bowen Road Primary School, and he's in kindergarten.

Hrisanthi 09:45

Sophie, can you tell me? Did you notice there was anything that Oscar needed help with? 

Sophie 09:50

Yes, we know some of his speeches that he was saying he needed help with, and that like he was saying he C, H, is a mix up of S, D and... S, H. Sorry.

Hrisanthi 09:59

So where... he did the screening. What did the school tell you?

Sophie 10:03

They told me that he needed like, many L's probably in the pronouns. They thought they were called on that, so we're gonna teach him here and that. And they gave some little homework to teach, little sheets with like L words on the like lizard and lion. They also gave me a little booklet that has pronouns in it for like, she, he, we, they, and...

Hrisanthi 10:30

That's great. And have you seen any changes in the way that he's developing since he's had the test?

Sophie 10:38

I have seen a little bit of changes. He's starting to, like, say some of the L words with his tongue, and he's starting to understand with, like, when he said the thing we got, asked him what the thing is, or we can ask him what that is, and he started to tell us what it is in that. Now,

Hrisanthi 10:52

So does that mean it's extending... his vocabulary is extending as well?

Sophie 10:57

Yes. So he's learning some new things in that. And yeah.

Hrisanthi 11:01

That's great. Thank you so much for your time, Sophie.

Sophie 11:04

That's all right. Thank you for interviewing me.

Hrisanthi 11:12

Now, what success have you had with students?

Melissa 11:15

Well, I have a little possum that the screen picked up who is very articulate, is down to earth, great at talking to adults, and her general knowledge is phenomenal. The screen actually picked up that she couldn't repeat the nonsense words, and it's not one that I would have ever put forward or even heard out myself that this little possum was at risk. So we've skipped her up very quickly and used some of the lessons and things as a whole class from the educators guide, and then, more specifically, with her in a smaller group, and we've noticed a big difference already in just her ability to be able to repeat the nonsense words, and that's also flown on to her listening and hearing rhyming words and breaking up syllables and all that as well. 

So that is definitely something that I would not have sort of targeted if it hadn't been for the GAPS test.

Hrisanthi 12:09

Mel, what's your hope for the future of literacy in Tasmania?

Melissa 12:13

I think all of the children moving through the system to have that self-confidence, to be able to go out and fill out their own paperwork and, you know, read the bus signs and just have all those if they know they don't want to be an academic or a university teacher, to have those real world skills to make them successful and and happy, you know, to be able to sit and read stories to their kids and to their grandkids, and feel confident enough to do that.

(THEME)

?Host 12:42

We acknowledge the traditional owners of this land that we recorded this podcast on, the [?Padloa] and [?Pakna] peoples in Lutruwita, Tasmania. We also acknowledge disabled First Nations people. Literacy Legends is hosted by [names], and produced by Honor Marino. It was developed in cooperation with Powerd Media and Print Radio Tasmania.

(THEME OUT)