The Talking Matters Charitable Trust

Talking Matters is on a mission to improve life-course outcomes through rich early oral language.

Oral language is the bedrock of literacy and fundamental to child development.

Responsive interactions in the first 1,000 days are the building blocks for child brain development. This process is also known as “serve and return” and the science behind it comes from the Harvard Centre on the Developing Child. https://www.talkingmatters.org.nz/why-talking-matters/

Talking Matters has a proven methodology to drive the practices that will see all children in Aotearoa New Zealand thrive as confident, competent and creative communicators. https://www.talkingmatters.org.nz/what-we-do/

But we need your help to get Talking Matters everywhere it needs to be.

We partner with the adults in children’s lives – whānau, communities, education, health & social services. We equip them with tools and capabilities to build and maintain language rich environments for the children in their world.

In our own first 1,000 days our partnerships enriched early oral language experiences for almost 6,000 children (0-5).

In 2026 we will expand our reach be rolling out improved engagement tools – enabling us to reach even more of the adults who can influence what happens for children across the course of their life.

Please help us to double our reach by 2030.