Transcript ENGAGING FAMILIES IN THE EARLY CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT …

ENGAGING FAMILIES IN THE EARLY CHILDHOOD
DEVELOPMENT STORY
• The Engaging Families in the ECD Story is a national project
supported and funded by the Standing Council on School
Education and Early Childhood (SCSEEC).
• The project supports the reform priority under the National
Early Childhood Development Strategy to engage parents
and the community in understanding the importance of early
childhood.
• Stage 1 was led by the South Australian Department for
Education and Child Development.
PROJECT RATIONALE
• Brain development in the prenatal period and early
years affects physical and mental health and learning
in childhood and adult life.
• The research shows that we cannot achieve our
outcomes for children without an investment in
families and parents.
• Parents are ‘the’ strongest influences in determining
their children’s life chances.
PROJECT AIMS
• The aim of the project is to increase parents/carers
and the community’s understanding of behaviours
they can adopt during the early years of a child’s life
to enhance brain development and overall life
chances of children.
• Stage 1 of the project identifies key messages from
the neuroscience for parenting and the most
effective means of providing information to parents.
STAGE 1 – PROJECT OUTCOMES
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Review of the neuroscience evidence base
Review of existing parenting initiatives
National parent focus groups and telephone survey
Final report.
KEY MESSAGES IDENTIFIED
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The first five years matter and last a lifetime
Good nutrition, health, and exercise are critical
Children are born ready to learn
The best learning happens in nurturing relationships
The brain develops through use
Children’s wellbeing is critical to brain development and learning
Children learn through being engaged and doing
Children learn from watching and copying
Children’s self-control is critical for learning, responsibility and
relationships
• Children learn language by listening to it and using it
• Children are born ready to use and learn mathematics
KEY MESSAGE FROM NEUROSCIENCE
Children’s self control
is critical for learning,
responsibility and
relationships.
Children learn self control
and manage their feelings
by modelling the behaviour
of their parents and adults
around them.
The development of
executive function (the
ability to organise and
manage your thinking,
emotions and actions)
including self regulation
and direction is critical to
early school success.
This includes being able to
sustain attention, try new
activities with curiosity and
enthusiasm, inhibit
impulsive behaviour, follow
directions, take turns and
show concern for others.
PARENTING STRATEGIES
EARLY YEARS LEARNING
FRAMEWORK
Regulate your own behaviour so
children learn from good models.
Allow young children to experience
tolerable frustrations and gradually
experience some supported delays in
gratification.
Establish purposeful routines,
directions and boundaries. Play
memory and association games,
encourage children to make choices,
such as having toys accessible to
children so they can make choices and
be responsible for putting them away.
To help reflection (self appraisal and
self monitoring), give children feedback
focusing on effort rather than the
success of a product. Encourage
children to pretend/role play with
others.
Play games with children, such as
‘Simon Says’, which helps children pay
attention and improves motor control
and control of impulses.
PRINCIPLE 1 Secure,
respectful, reciprocal
relationships
OUTCOME1:2
Children develop their
emerging autonomy,
inter-dependence,
resilience and sense of
agency
OUTCOME 2.2
Children develop a sense
of belonging to groups
and communities and an
understanding of the
reciprocal rights and
responsibilities necessary
for active community
participation
OUTCOME 2.4
Children become socially
responsible and show
respect for the
environment
• Brain development in the prenatal period and
early years affects physical and mental health
and learning in childhood and adult life.
• The research shows that we cannot achieve
our outcomes for children without an
investment in families and parents.
• Parents are ‘the’ strongest influences in
determining their children’s life chances.
PROJECT FINDINGS: What do parents understand about
early childhood development?
• Almost 1 in 5 parents thought that parents cannot make much
difference to how a child’s brain develops
• 25% of parents thought that television helps children’s brains
more than playing and another quarter were undecided
• 34% of parents thought that a one year old could understand
the difference between right and wrong
• 1 in 5 thought that you should only praise children when they
succeeded with a task or challenge.
PROJECT FINDINGS: Accessibility of parenting programs
• 126 parenting initiatives – 98 different messages
• Over half of the parenting initiatives were delivered
face to face
• Most initiatives were delivered when convenient for
services rather than parents and families
• 70% of initiatives were targeting parents who met
specific requirements.
PROJECT FINDINGS: In general, how useful do parents find
the information they receive?
• Friends and other parents were one of the most used and
least criticised sources of useful information
• Four of the significant general issues raised related to
usefulness of information were:
– the fall off of information as children grew
– the lack of information about learning
– the biased focus on mums
– inconsistency between sources of information.
Sources of ECD information
Friends or other parents
76.0
Family members who don't live with you
71.0
Doctors
66.4
Books, magazines, or newspapers
62.6
Nurses
59.8
Teacher or staff at kindy, preschool or school
50.8
TV shows, movies, documentaries
50.5
Teachers or staff at playgroup or childcare
49.5
Pamphlets or posters
48.0
Websites
41.7
Family members who live with you
41.4
Parenting groups or workshops
38.6
Other community groups or government agencies
34.6
Programs like home-visiting
26.8
Videos or DVDs
23.1
Other telephone services
13.7
Parent Helpline
13.1
Any other places where you have got information
10.0
Social networking sites
6.9
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CONCLUSION – Stage 1
We need to shift from the current emphasis on
targeting different messages to a few population
groups and move to a positive, consistent universal
message that is accessible by all parents.
A range of communication channels, tailored to
meet the preferences of groups in the community
but the messages stay the same.
ENGAGING FAMILIES – Stage 2
South Australia is leading stage 2 that includes the following:
• Building an Alliance of interested organisations/corporations
to develop a long term, sustainable social marketing campaign
to share the key early childhood messages with the
community as identified in stage 1 of the project.
• Testing strategies to engage parents, in particular,
grandparents as carers, fathers and Aboriginal families.
• Progressing recommendations 1a to 1d identified in stage 1 of
the project, particularly with regard to the development of an
ECD Parenting Toolkit.
ENGAGING FAMILIES – Stage 2
National Steering Group with representatives from:
– Early Childhood Development Working Group (ECDWG)
– Australian Health Ministers Advisory Council (AHMAC)
– Community and Disability Services Ministers Advisory
Council (CDSMAC)
– Child Health and Wellbeing Subcommittee (CHWS)
ECD PARENTING TOOLKIT
• The aim of the Toolkit is to provide a consistent, evidence
based approach to the design, delivery and evaluation of
parenting initiatives
• Written in a language of partnership
• Based on best practice that includes a section on parent
engagement
• An easy to use guide that will reference other existing best
practice resources
• Consultation with practitioners during June 2012.
• Piloted before full implementation.
SOCIAL MARKETING PLAN
• SA is working in partnership with the Australian Research
Alliance for Children and Youth (ARACY) to develop the social
marketing plan. This will include an environmental audit,
beliefs diagnosis, behavioural segmentation, policy and
service interventions, communications strategies and research
and evaluation plan.
• As part of this work there will be a focus on testing strategies
to engage grandparents as carers, fathers and Aboriginal
families as outlined in the project deliverables.
CORPORATE ENGAGMENT
Business Engagement Strategy:
• Corporate Resource Package
• Stakeholder Analysis
• Mechanism to hold potential funds
• Website to facilitate project
This will not commence until late 2012/early 2013.
ENGAGMENT & PROMOTION
• Presenting at major conferences and symposiums – NiFTY,
ARACY forum, National Symposium: Engaging parents and
Families in Learning and School
• National Road Show – National Steering Group, Government
agencies Research Centres, Non-Government organisations
and community groups
• Public Information sessions - ARACY, TNS & SA
• Presentations and updates to various committees and groups
• Champions across Australia.
CONTACT DETAILS
KATERINA ELEUTHERIOU
NATIONAL PROJECT MANAGER
08 82261064
[email protected]