The Learning Support Department continues to grow as the needs of the children are taken into consideration. Our philosophy is: ‘To support each child to be the best they can be.’ In any teaching environment there will always be children, older or younger, who are not coping with one or more aspects of current requirements. Causes are multiple. They might include: poor health (resulting perhaps in absence when important classwork is presented); neurological ‘wiring’ known as dyslexia or dyscalculia; physical disabilities such as poor eye sight or defective hearing; emotional issue; concentration difficulties such as ADD or ADHD; various visual perceptual or hand-eye co-ordination lapses; language and auditory processing difficulties. Children whose mother tongue is not English may experience difficulties in dealing with the most fundamental of the required language skills.
At Cowan House we are blessed to offer the services of three Remedial Therapists; Kerryn Bullough, Janet Anderson and Tammy Raw. We also have three Speech and Language Therapists; Petro Fowler, Nicole Stroebel and Ilana Botha as well as three Occupational Therapists, Helen Fitschen, Emma Wijnberg and Lyndal Nicholson.
Language and Literacy class groups are conducted in the Grade R to Gr Three classes for an hour per week. From the beginning of their Gr R year, students learn about the sound structure of language. They become aware of the fact that stories are made up of sentences. Sentences have words in them. Some words rhyme. Words contain vowels and consonants. Words can be divided into syllables. Words have beginning, middle and end sounds, which we pronounce in a certain way. We represent these sounds on paper using letters. Students also learn that words can have different meanings. By systematically allowing students to learn, practice and apply their knowledge about sounds, letters and word meanings, they learn how to write and read.
Students spend more time in front of screens than ever before and it is vital to ensure that children remain aware of, and practice good listening habits. Elements such as focus, waiting for full instructions, and identifying key words in auditory information are introduced during class groups.
Older students learn listening comprehension strategies, which enable them to identify the main idea of a passage, describe, give their opinion, think about someone else’s perspective, predict, play listening detective (infer) and visualise by formulating a picture in their minds when hearing information. Interesting topics are discussed, which allow students to think critically about various matters as varied as owning exotic pets and pollution. By increasing students’ world-knowledge we are also improving their reading comprehension skills as it is important to activate prior knowledge about a topic to aid understanding and retention of new information.
Apart from learning how an informational text is structured, students also learn about the different parts stories have. Initially students analyse text by identifying the character, setting, problem and resolution. Over time they learn how to retell, summarise and write their own stories and information paragraphs using the skills addressed during class discussions. Students use “talk for writing” where they rehearse aloud what they want to write about, before writing. This is a powerful strategy which makes writing easier.
The main aims of our Language and Literacy groups are to teach students, in fun and interactive ways, how to think critically about information they hear and read, to be more confident writers and to truly develop a hunger for knowledge so that they might read for pleasure.
11 Dennis Shepstone Drive, Hilton, 3245, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.
033 343 3261
