TO EDIT GRAPHICS IN THE MASTER SELECT: VIEW > SLIDE MASTER TO APPLY PAGE STYLES RIGHT CLICK YOUR PAGE >LAYOUT Research Institute for Professional Practice, Learning & Education Celebrating Indigenous Australian children’s languages: Diversity, competence, and support Professor Sharynne McLeod and Sarah Verdon Charles Sturt University, Bathurst, NSW, Australia

TO EDIT GRAPHICS IN THE MASTER SELECT: VIEW > SLIDE MASTER TO APPLY PAGE STYLES RIGHT CLICK YOUR PAGE >LAYOUT Research Institute for Professional Practice, Learning & Education Acknowledgments Laura Bennetts Kneebone, Deborah Kikkawa, and Fiona Skelton - Footprints in Time, Department of Social Services Knowledge and insights from the Wiradjuri people This paper was supported by Australian Research Council Future Fellowship FT

TO EDIT GRAPHICS IN THE MASTER SELECT: VIEW > SLIDE MASTER TO APPLY PAGE STYLES RIGHT CLICK YOUR PAGE >LAYOUT Research Institute for Professional Practice, Learning & Education Article 13 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples states: “Indigenous peoples have the right to revitalise, use, develop and transmit to future generations their histories, languages, oral traditions, philosophies, writing systems and literatures, and to designate and retain their own names for communities, places and persons.” United Nations. (2008). United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Geneva, Switzerland: Author. Retrieved from

TO EDIT GRAPHICS IN THE MASTER SELECT: VIEW > SLIDE MASTER TO APPLY PAGE STYLES RIGHT CLICK YOUR PAGE >LAYOUT Research Institute for Professional Practice, Learning & Education Preservation of Indigenous Australian languages is important Cultural beliefs, practices, and identity are transmitted through language Australia has been identified as the continent where the most rapid decline in languages is occurring (Nettle & Romaine, 2000) Intergenerational transmission of Indigenous Australian languages is endangered Nettle, N., & Romaine, S. (2000). Vanishing voices: The extinction of the world’s languages. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

TO EDIT GRAPHICS IN THE MASTER SELECT: VIEW > SLIDE MASTER TO APPLY PAGE STYLES RIGHT CLICK YOUR PAGE >LAYOUT Research Institute for Professional Practice, Learning & Education Aims 1.To describe the types of languages spoken by Indigenous Australian children 2.To describe the speech and language competence of Indigenous Australian children 3.To describe the language environment of Indigenous Australian children

TO EDIT GRAPHICS IN THE MASTER SELECT: VIEW > SLIDE MASTER TO APPLY PAGE STYLES RIGHT CLICK YOUR PAGE >LAYOUT Research Institute for Professional Practice, Learning & Education Footprints in Time Longitudinal Study of Indigenous Children is supported by Indigenous Australians and funded and managed by the Australian government Indigenous interviewers in eleven sites across Australia conduct face-to-face interviews with children, their carers, and teachers each year Commenced in 2008 with five annual waves of data available

TO EDIT GRAPHICS IN THE MASTER SELECT: VIEW > SLIDE MASTER TO APPLY PAGE STYLES RIGHT CLICK YOUR PAGE >LAYOUT Research Institute for Professional Practice, Learning & Education Where are Footprints families?

TO EDIT GRAPHICS IN THE MASTER SELECT: VIEW > SLIDE MASTER TO APPLY PAGE STYLES RIGHT CLICK YOUR PAGE >LAYOUT Research Institute for Professional Practice, Learning & Education Participants Participants from the Child cohort to 5-year-old children and primary caregivers (wave 1) to 7-year-old children and primary caregivers (wave 3) The largest groups were Wiradjuri, Arrernte, Yorta Yorta, and Gamilaraay (from wave 1 report) Information was provided by the parent who knew each child the best (FaHCSIA, 2009, 2012)

TO EDIT GRAPHICS IN THE MASTER SELECT: VIEW > SLIDE MASTER TO APPLY PAGE STYLES RIGHT CLICK YOUR PAGE >LAYOUT Research Institute for Professional Practice, Learning & Education Number of languages spoken by children 3- to 5-year-olds5- to 7-year-olds English91.2%99.6% Indigenous languages 24.4%26.8% Creoles11.5%13.7% Foreign languages 2.0%5.1% Sign languages0.6%0.4% The children spoke between 1 and 8 languages

TO EDIT GRAPHICS IN THE MASTER SELECT: VIEW > SLIDE MASTER TO APPLY PAGE STYLES RIGHT CLICK YOUR PAGE >LAYOUT Research Institute for Professional Practice, Learning & Education Number of languages spoken by children compared with their parents (P1) 3- to 5-year-oldsParent 1 English91.2%92.6% Indigenous languages 24.4%28.0% Creoles11.5%- Foreign languages 2.0%2.3% Sign languages0.6%0.0% If P1 spoke an Indigenous language then 83.0% of children also spoke an Indigenous language

TO EDIT GRAPHICS IN THE MASTER SELECT: VIEW > SLIDE MASTER TO APPLY PAGE STYLES RIGHT CLICK YOUR PAGE >LAYOUT Research Institute for Professional Practice, Learning & Education Impact of location on languages spoken Children who spoke an Indigenous language were more likely to live in moderate to extreme isolation Children who spoke English, or a foreign or sign language lived in less-isolated places

TO EDIT GRAPHICS IN THE MASTER SELECT: VIEW > SLIDE MASTER TO APPLY PAGE STYLES RIGHT CLICK YOUR PAGE >LAYOUT Research Institute for Professional Practice, Learning & Education Activities undertaken in an Indigenous language 3- to 5-year-old children (n = 692) Activity in an Indigenous language Played outdoors94.9%6.2% Played indoors with toys or games 93.4%5.9% Played music, sang, danced 91.0%7.8% Shopping89.5%5.3% Drew pictures, art, or craft activities 81.9%5.5% Housework/cooking78.5%5.0% Went to playground74.9%5.2% Swimming50.3%10.1% Played computer, Xbox, Playstation 48.3%4.2%

TO EDIT GRAPHICS IN THE MASTER SELECT: VIEW > SLIDE MASTER TO APPLY PAGE STYLES RIGHT CLICK YOUR PAGE >LAYOUT Research Institute for Professional Practice, Learning & Education Language support at 3 to 5 years Told an oral story to the child Read a book to the child Overall 72.0%79.0% Mother 54.3%64.3% Father 23.7%21.2% Sister 11.4%17.8% Brother 9.5%10.7% Grandmother 15.8%9.7% Grandfather 5.4%2.9% Aunts, uncles, cousins, friends, teachers and others also were involved in these activities

TO EDIT GRAPHICS IN THE MASTER SELECT: VIEW > SLIDE MASTER TO APPLY PAGE STYLES RIGHT CLICK YOUR PAGE >LAYOUT Research Institute for Professional Practice, Learning & Education Language support at 5 to 7 years Told an oral story to the child Read a book to the child Listened to the child read Overall 70.4%80.7%83.5% Mother 45.1%59.8%72.1% Father 20.9%19.6%27.2% Sister 7.2%12.5%14.6% Brother 4.7%4.0%8.1% Grandmother 11.6%7.9%11.8% Grandfather 4.7%1.8%3.2% Aunts, uncles, cousins, friends, teachers and others also were involved in these activities

TO EDIT GRAPHICS IN THE MASTER SELECT: VIEW > SLIDE MASTER TO APPLY PAGE STYLES RIGHT CLICK YOUR PAGE >LAYOUT Research Institute for Professional Practice, Learning & Education Passing on Indigenous languages to the next generation Almost a third of parents identified “speaking languages” as one of the five most important aspects of Indigenous culture that they wanted to pass on to their children Almost all parents indicated that they would like their child to learn an Indigenous language at school in some capacity

TO EDIT GRAPHICS IN THE MASTER SELECT: VIEW > SLIDE MASTER TO APPLY PAGE STYLES RIGHT CLICK YOUR PAGE >LAYOUT Research Institute for Professional Practice, Learning & Education Summary Footprints in Time is the largest study of Indigenous children in the world Many Indigenous children are multilingual with some speaking up to 8 languages A quarter of children spoke an Indigenous language Indigenous Australian children have rich cultural and linguistic traditions and their speech and language competence is promoted through family and community experiences. Almost all parents wanted their children to learn an Indigenous language at school in some capacity

TO EDIT GRAPHICS IN THE MASTER SELECT: VIEW > SLIDE MASTER TO APPLY PAGE STYLES RIGHT CLICK YOUR PAGE >LAYOUT Research Institute for Professional Practice, Learning & Education More information The full version of this paper has been published: McLeod, S., Verdon, S., & Bennetts Kneebone, L. (2014). Celebrating Indigenous Australian children’s speech and language competence. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 29(2),

TO EDIT GRAPHICS IN THE MASTER SELECT: VIEW > SLIDE MASTER TO APPLY PAGE STYLES RIGHT CLICK YOUR PAGE >LAYOUT Research Institute for Professional Practice, Learning & Education References Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (FaHCSIA, 2009). Footprints in Time: The Longitudinal Study of Indigenous Children: Key summary report from wave 1. Canberra, Australia: Author. Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (FaHCSIA, 2012). Footprints in Time: The Longitudinal Study of Indigenous Children: Key summary report from wave 3. Canberra, Australia: Author. Nettle, N., & Romaine, S. (2000). Vanishing voices: The extinction of the world’s languages. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. United Nations. (2008). United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Geneva, Switzerland: Author. Retrieved from