A PAP kindergarten in Block 125 Serangoon North will become the 12th and latest in the PAP Community Foundation (PCF) network to add speech and drama classes to its curriculum and the first to extend it to four-year-olds.
The kindergarten, which goes by the name SPICE@Serangoon, will from next month run what is known as the Spice programme - one that develops the child's Social, Physical, Intellectual, Creative and Emotional abilities.
At the core of Spice is a once-weekly speech and drama component taught by teachers certified by the Julia Gabriel Centre for Learning.
Spice is also available at 11 other PCF centres islandwide, though at those centres, it is run for five- and six-year-olds.
A typical hour-long Spice lesson includes learning how to pronounce words and make sounds; to hone the child's drama skills, teachers present a scenario which the pre-schoolers then build on.
The parents of the four-year-olds at SPICE@Serangoon pay $110 a month to be on the Spice programme; if they want their child to be taught by instructors from Julia Gabriel, they pay $170 a month.
Early childhood education specialists believe that children can benefit from speech and drama lessons even at the age of 18 months.
Read the full story in Tuesday's edition of The Straits Times.
