A new campaign supporting early childhood development is being piloted in Mount Gambier, aimed at increasing awareness of the developmental impact of parent-toddler interactions during childhood.
Key points:
- Mount Gambier will pilot the Words Grow Minds campaign to encourage parents to talk, play, read and sing with their children
- About 25 per cent of South Australian children start school with a developmental vulnerability
- Program developers hope to roll out the campaign across the state
Developed by the Early Years Taskforce and launched by its chair — the former federal minister for early childhood — Kate Ellis, the Words Grow Minds campaign aims to curb the upward trend of children starting school with a developmental vulnerability.
Ms Ellis said the campaign used simple messaging to get to the heart of how parents can help babies and young children thrive: namely, to talk, play, read, and sing together with their children from birth.
“The research shows that up to 85 per cent of a child’s brain development occurs during their first three years,” Ms Ellis said.
“So, what we’ve done is tried to come up with a fun campaign to show families really simple things that they can do to literally grow their babies’ brains through positive interactions.”
Data from the Australian Early Development Census (AEDC) shows South Australia lags behind the national average in all five developmental domains — physical, cognitive, social, emotional and linguistic — with nearly one-in-four of the state’s children starting school developmentally vulnerable.
Ms Ellis said the research also showed that parents were misinformed about the causes of their child’s developmental outcomes.
“Sadly, the research shows that a lot of members of the public believe that a child’s outcomes are dependent on their genes and that the genes they’re born with will determine their life outcomes,” she said.
“That’s not true.
“Investing time in play and in positive interactions has a massive benefit and we want to get out there and promote that, and make sure that South Australian children get the best start possible in life.”
Library roll out
Raising Literacy Australia chief executive Elizabeth Davis said the Words Grow Minds campaign was unique in the way it set out to deliver its message, going beyond a simple media campaign.
“The really innovative aspect of this campaign is that it combines advertising to build broad community awareness with specialised childhood delivery services that work directly with parents of young families,” she said.
By partnering with 35 other government and non-government organisations, Words Grow Minds provides consistent messaging to parents regardless of the childhood service they interact with.
One of those services is the Mount Gambier Library, which has agreed to integrate the Words Grow Minds messaging into all of its under-five programs.
The library’s children and youth services coordinator Kelly Lynch said consistency in messaging was important for the community.
“We will be using the campaign’s call to action which is to talk with your baby, play with your baby and read to your baby. Your words will grow their mind,” she said.
“Those ideas already underpin everything we do with families at the Mount Gambier Library.
“But we will just be specifically using that catch phrase and that jingle and the resources and also collaborating with other service providers to think of some exciting programs to just reinforce the campaign’s messages.”
Logical choice
Ms Ellis said Mount Gambier’s established set of early childhood services and large number of young families made it a logical location to trial the program.
But the Early Years Taskforce together with Raising Literacy Australia already have plans to expand the program into other areas across the state.
“We want to start in Mount Gambier and see if we can learn some lessons about what works, what people respond well to, and then maybe adapt the campaign and try it again in Whyalla … and hopefully take this campaign right across the state,” Ms Ellis said.