OLEY aims to help students increase their oral (spoken) language skills. The development of oral language is crucial to a child's literacy development, including listening, speaking, reading and writing.
Good oral language skills will assist students to have greater classroom participation and has been strongly linked to successful development of reading and writing skills. Put simply, children who possess well-developed oral language skills are more likely to become successful readers.
The OLEY program has been designed as a whole class program, which may be implemented with both small and large groups, or with individuals in classrooms. It has been developed as eight, one- hour sessions, which once introduced, may be revisited regularly for additional practice. Each session is based on an element of the Early Years Curriculum, and consists of an initial whole-class activity, followed by several small group activities. The activities are all presented as games and other highly motivating activities.
The OLEY program also assists in identifying those students who may require additional support. A follow-up intervention program is then tailored to the individual needs of these students.