Building the foundation for our Deaf and hard of hearing tamariki and their whānau in the Early Years Whānau Centre.

It's been a fun-filled 2022 at the Early Years Whānau Centre (EYWC) with family and child learning focusing on rich language experiences through individual and group play-based learning experiences.

Tamariki and their families are at the heart of our programme, focusing on fostering partnerships between whānau, staff and key professionals. In July, we changed our licensing with the Ministry of Education to better reflect the Playgroup nature of our sessions and the relationship between parents, whānau and staff.

Transitions to school, fond farewells and best wishes have included Nico Agnew, Ethan Dapamede and Bridie Williams. Helen King moved into her Advisor of Deaf Children position at the Ministry of Education and passed the baton onto Tina Harrison as Early Years Programmes Lead.

Sessions always include opportunities for child-led play experiences and signed music. Story-times focusing on Theory of Mind concepts with thinking and feeling language and lots of repetitive language enriched our Playgroup sessions and allow tamariki to show us their language learning and ideas.

We welcomed back the 3-day Preschool Residential Courses and have enjoyed whānau visiting from the regions, joining us in the EYWC with time to experience audiology appointments, visual communication and Deaf Culture, early literacy and speech and language sessions.

It's always a busy but very fulfilling time!