Adam lives with his parents, Maryam and Paul, older sister Maira, and baby brother Elijah. He has attended his local kindergarten four mornings a week for the last 8 months. Adam has complex needs associated with cerebral palsy and has minimal spoken language. He communicates with a mix of vocalisations, facial expressions and gestures. He also uses a walker with a seat attachment to move independently around while at kindergarten.

Kaiako have been working with Adam’s parents and Ministry of Education Speech Language Therapist (SLT). Recently, with guidance and support from the team, Adam’s parents have decided to introduce Adam to a core board to support his communication at home.

Over the last few months Adam’s parents have been using the core board with Adam, and he has been picking it up very well. They would now like to see Adam also using the core board at kindergarten. The team agree this is a good idea and put a plan in place. As you read the following learning notes, highlighted comments provide more information about the connections between learning note content, Te Whāriki and the Understanding & Using Language area of Kōwhiti Whakapae: Oral Language & Literacy.