A new Bowen and Whitsundays program will help parents make sure their child is prepared for prep in 2022 by giving them the tools to help build their language and early reading and writing skills.
The Get Ready! school readiness program is run by speech pathologists and is designed to strengthen early foundations of language and literacy. The program aims to improve children’s skills and knowledge in the areas of vocabulary, storytelling, sound awareness and print awareness.
These skills are proven to be among the most important in preparing young children for later success in reading and writing.
The Proserpine Hospital Speech Pathologist Kelly Rodgers said new data from the Australian Early Development Census shows that 40% of Proserpine kids aged 0 – 5 years are deemed developmentally vulnerable, compared to 21.7% nationally.
“Parents have so much pressure nowadays to teach their kids everything,” she said.
“But often they don’t understand what their kids really need to know before starting prep and so we are running this program to help support them.
“For example, parents often worry about their kids needing to know the alphabet before starting school.
“It is more valuable for kids to know about sounds first. This is the kind of thing we will help them with to make sure their child has the best start to school.”
Get Ready! uses an evidence-based program that has been modified to suit the needs of the Bowen and Whitsundays communities.
“We are very excited to be bringing the program to this area. It is a first for our region,” she said.
“Each lesson involves the reading of a storybook and parents are given a handout to do at home with their child. Some of the activities include identifying and describing the setting and characters of a story or identifying words that rhyme.
“The activities are all very easy and repetitive so parents can do it from home with their child with whatever books they have. Afterall, parents are the best teachers.”
The Get Ready! school readiness program will run one day a week for eight weeks in Proserpine and Bowen. Sessions will start in February and are completely free with a valid Medicare card. To register your interest and find out more please contact:
- Bowen Hospital on 4786 8222
- Whitsunday Community Health Centre on 4948 7633
The program resources have been supported by the Bowen Auxiliary and the Whitsunday Regional Council Libraries.
