School-Aged (5-6 Yrs)

It's just as important to keep nurturing the language of your tamaiti once they are school aged. It's the old saying Mā te mahi, ka tika; Mā te kōrero, ka pakari - practice makes perfect. Language skills are important throughout your tamaiti's schooling and life. The important thing at this stage is to make building language skills fun.

 

 

Te pakeke o tō tamaiti

 He aha āna pūkenga?

5 years
  • Vocabulary could be anywhere from 1,000-5,000 words
  • Can use many descriptive words spontaneously
  • Knows common opposites: big-little, hard-soft, heavy-light, etc
  • Can count to ten
  • Should know his age
  • Should be able to follow three commands given without interruptions
  • Should have simple time concepts: ata, ahiahi, pō, rangi, a muri, whai muri, āpopo
  • Speech should be completely intelligible
  • Speech on the whole should be grammatically correct

6 years
  • Speech should be completely intelligible and socially useful