Ms Shamiah Bafadhal
NTUC First Campus, Child Support Services
Ms Shamiah holds a Master of Science in speech language pathology from the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore. Prior to joining NTUC First Campus (NFC) in 2017, Ms Shamiah was a Speech Language Therapist with KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital. Currently, as part of the first in-house therapy team at NFC, Ms Shamiah provides therapy services to 4 to 6-year-olds at My First Skool childcare centres, collaborating with Learning Support Educators, teachers and parents to support the speech and language development of children with special and diverse needs.
The development of language is facilitated by the way it is embedded meaningfully within various social contexts of an individual’s life. Regardless of the particular language used, be it English or Mother Tongue Language, parents and educators can employ specific strategies during their interactions with young children to support the learning and use of words and sentences. This sharing session will provide an introduction to the way we expect language to develop, especially within multilingual families, and elaborate on the practical ways we can enrich the interactions and activities of daily lives of children, so as to support the development of bilingual competency. Beyond passive learning of language as an academic subject within the classroom, linguistic competency is best achieved as a holistic approach that involves changes to the social environment.