To know what we know and to address what we don't know across the G.I.S cohort of New Entrants's, Year 1's, Year 2's, Year 3's and Year 4's an oral language assessment was conducted in Term 2 to give a baseline data entry. There are two subsequent checkpoints scheduled for Term 3 and Term 4 to measure the growth thereafter.
To give some standardisation, the test was identically conducted by the same person for all 99 assessments and therefore the test was satisfactorily conducted in the same way for all students.
The results were quite overwhelming given what we did know, but what we didn't know was the depth of the pit we are facing...
New Entrants:
Chronological Age Range: 5yrs - 5yrs 5months
Average Chronological Age: 5yrs 3months
Oral Language Range: 2yrs 8months - 5yrs
Average Oral Language: 3yrs 8months
DEFICIT: - 1 yr 7 months
Year 1:
Chronological Age Range: 5yrs 6months - 6yrs 1month
Average Chronological Age: 5yrs 6months
Oral Language Range: 2yrs 10months - 4yrs 11months
Average Oral Language: 4yrs 7months
DEFICIT: - 11months
Year 2:
Chronological Age Range: 6yrs 2months - 7yrs
Average Chronological Age: 6yrs 5months
Oral Language Range: 2yrs 5months - 8yrs 1month
Average Oral Language: 5yrs
DEFICIT: - 1 yr 5 months
Year 3:
Chronological Age Range: 7yrs 1month - 8yrs 2months
Average Chronological Age: 7yrs 5months
Oral Language Range: 2yrs 5months - 7yrs 11months
Average Oral Language: 5yrs 9months
DEFICIT: - 1yr 8 months
Year 4:
Chronological Age Range: 8yrs 2months - 9yrs
Average Chronological Age: 8yrs 5months
Oral Language Range: 4yrs 8months - 7yrs 11months
Average Oral Language: 7yrs
DEFICIT: - 1yr 5 months
Conclusion...
In our age range at G.I.S of 5yrs - 9yrs, spanning the N.E's - Year 4;
"AVERAGE" oral language chronological age is 5 years
"AVERAGE" deficit of -1 year 5 months per student
- NE oral language understanding = 3 years 8 months (Nursery Age)
- Y1 oral language undertanding = 4 years 1 month (Kindergarten Age)
- Y2 oral language understanding = 5 years (School Entry Age)
- Y3 oral language understanding = 6 years (End of Yr 1)
- Y4 oral language understanding = 7 years (End of Yr 2)
SO... where next?
