JCPSLP Vol 19 No 1 March 2017

Semi-structured interviews were analysed using a qualitative approach and three main themes were identified. These were: knowing the child and family, systemic and individual factors which affect Aboriginal children’s learning and communication development. Subthemes or key concepts were identified as part of each theme. All participants drew on experience to explain their observations or perceptions. Importantly, it was noted that non-Aboriginal teachers also drew on theoretical knowledge of culture and history in an attempt to understand how they could better support the children’s development. The teachers acknowledged the value of experience and training in working with Aboriginal children and families. The awareness, knowledge and experience that a professional (educator or speech-language pathologist) holds about Aboriginal cultural ways of doing, learning and communicating may affect how successfully learning environments are cultivated to support children of Aboriginal culture. All professionals working with Aboriginal children need to be mindful of how children’s behaviour and communication are interpreted, with respect to cultural values and practices. The importance of developing respectful and supportive relationships to promote children’s learning was emphasised at several levels. Teachers, ECEs and parents discussed successful relationships that had been developed personally, at the level of the child and their family, as well between the service (ECE or school) and the Aboriginal community. SLPs can learn from these comments to value the importance of fostering relationships at many levels in order to fully support Aboriginal children’s learning. Teachers and ECEs discussed many different classroom teaching and learning strategies used to enhance literacy development for Aboriginal children. It is important for speech-language pathologists (SLPs) who are collaborating with educators working with Aboriginal children to be aware of the variety of different teaching and learning strategies that teachers employ as well as the knowledge and experience of teachers with regards to these. At the same time, ECEs and teachers showed willingness to learn from members of the community about ways in which to improve their practice. The information gained from this research has implications for SLPs working collaboratively with educators

influence of skills, confidence and experiences of family members: Mum’s literacy skills are low. So mum doesn’t feel confident helping her. Some parents may not have had very positive experience at school so don’t feel confident to support the kids. (T5) Cultural factors Teachers and ECEs occasionally commented on individual children’s behaviours; however, they did not typically consider these to be related to culture. For example, a child may have been labelled as “shy”, or the teacher noted that the child would not participate in telling news in front of the class. Cultural aspects such as “shame” (Harkins, 1990) were not mentioned by the participants in this study. Aboriginal discourse, world views and learning practices may differ from the discourses and learning practices encouraged in a system modelled on a western European style of education (Dunn, 2001; Ellis et al., 2010; Malcolm, 1994a, 1994b; Malin, 1990). Embedding supportive and appropriate learning opportunities into educational systems may be a challenge for educators who are not aware of some of the subtleties of differences in communication between Aboriginal and mainstream Australian culture. Child’s strengths Many teachers indicated they valued a strengths-based approach in their teaching. They commented on individual children’s strengths in particular areas, such as numeracy, literacy or group participation, and they stressed the importance of developing the Aboriginal child’s self-esteem. “She has very strong numeracy skills; her numeracy skills are at the end of grade one level. She is very strong in that area” (T2). Limitations This qualitative study used thematic analysis to code and identify themes based on individual responses in interviews. Results must be interpreted with caution due to the small sample size. The ideas presented in this paper cannot be generalised to other similar populations without replication. Conclusions This research explored the perceptions of ECEs, teachers and parents/carers about Aboriginal children’s communication and emergent literacy development.

Appendix 1

General areas for discussion during the interview with educators Demographic information 1. How long have you been working in early childhood? 2. How long in this position? 3. How old are you? Choices of age categories: 4. What are your qualifications? 5. What experience have you had in working with Aboriginal children? 6. Are you Aboriginal? Personal beliefs and experience 7. What do you think about the way Aboriginal children talk? 8. What do you do to help Aboriginal children develop their language? 9. What did you learn about language development in your training? 10. What did you learn about Aboriginal children and their language, during your training? 11. To what extent are you involved with the local Aboriginal community? 12. What strategies do you apply (if any) when teaching Aboriginal children literacy? 13. Do you think [child] communicates well for his/her age? (Explain why you think this.)

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JCPSLP Volume 19, Number 1 2017

Journal of Clinical Practice in Speech-Language Pathology