Author: ned@imarketu.com.au

We found a great resource which discusses Queensland’s Early Childhood Development Story. This is the story of how children grow well. Each chapter is important to the story. Every person has a role to play—parents, grandparents, aunties, uncles, community members, educators, and service providers. Read Queensland’s Early Childhood Development story to learn how you can help children grow well. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-88DCY6-Nk Chapter 1: Loving relationships Children feel loved and secure in warm, caring relationships. Loving relationships help children to feel safe. Showing them they are loved builds their confidence, ability to bounce back when things get tough and eagerness to learn. Regular routines for sleep, play and meals reassures children that they can trust their world. When you encourage children to talk about their feelings, listen to them and respond, you help them to connect with you, and feel valued. Talking with children about everyday experiences and celebrating their achievements, builds their language. This helps them to speak up and participate in everyday life. What does this look like? Listening and responding to children builds their language and social skills. When you listen, they learn to listen to you. Having more language means children can better express their feelings. Holding and cuddling your child releases good hormones that support their growth. You can connect emotionally with your child by talking, smiling, hugging, and laughing.  Download the poster (PDF, 914KB) Chapter 2: Healthy environments Children thrive in safe, healthy and positive environments. Healthy homes and communities are places and spaces where children can safely grow and develop. Providing a variety of nutritious foods and water gives children fuel to grow strong bodies and brains. Good eating habits and regular active movement are important to start in the early years. Environments free from toxic substances are also important for growing bodies and brains. Every step through a child’s world—from home and into the community—brings opportunities for physical, social and emotional development. Children can explore confidently when families create a healthy balance between safety and freedom. What does this look like? Children love to help prepare meals. Did you know this can help them develop good eating habits and reduce the risk of health problems later in life? Children need to explore the world around to grow physically and mentally strong.Living in Queensland means using sun protection, hats and shade, and drinking water , to keep cool and safe. Download the poster (PDF, 1.1MB) Chapter 3: Learning everywhere Children are learning everywhere, every day. From their first moments, children are learning, experiencing the world through their senses and interacting with the important people in their lives. It is these important people who show children how to communicate with others. When children play they have fun. They also build physical, cultural, social and emotional skills, and discover more about themselves, others and the environment they live in. We are a diverse state with natural and built environments: from the outback to the rainforest, rivers and the sea. We live in remote areas, regional towns and large cities, all areas with rich cultural heritage. Wherever families live, it is important for children to play, explore and learn—at home and in the wider world. What does this look like? Play is essential for learning. Everyday experiences like shopping, cleaning or gardening are opportunities for children to play and learn. Positive communication builds brains. Wherever you are, whatever you are doing, you can share conversations, stories and songs with children. Download the poster (PDF, 1MB) Chapter 4: Strong connections Children’s sense of belonging is built through strong connections to family, culture and community. Knowing who you are and where you belong—with family, culture and community—is important. When children and families feel connected to community, they find friends and develop a sense of belonging and wellbeing. Queenslanders have diverse cultural backgrounds, languages, values and beliefs. When everyone is recognised, feels included and welcomed, we build a positive sense of belonging and encourage children to embrace and celebrate the diversity around them. This creates a shared understanding and respect for identity. What does this look like? Having friends and feeling connected to community is good for families.Local festivals, community gardens, sporting and cultural activities all offer opportunities to connect to community and belong. Participating in community life builds wellbeing and provides opportunities to share culture.What family or cultural traditions are important to you and your children? How can you share these with friends or neighbours? Download the poster (PDF, 1.1MB) Chapter 5: Supportive communities Children and families thrive when communities and services are supportive and meet their needs. Children and families do best when supported by a stable network of connections in the early years. Making the most of the services and support available can make a big difference to the lives of children and families. When services value and include the voices of children and families in planning and delivery, we are providing the most responsive and relevant programs to support them in navigating the rough and the smooth times. What does this look like? Families have access to services which can work with them to give their children a great start in life.Ask your local child health nurse, GP or early childhood teacher or educator about how you can make the most of early childhood, health and family support services in your local area. Download the poster (PDF, 1.1MB) The story goes on: Growing well together When every Queensland child grows well, we all do better. We can all contribute to making sure that families have access to supportive relationships, nutritious food and healthy environments for their children. There is a role for everyone in providing opportunities for learning and enjoyment, supportive local services, and a sense of community. Every interaction matters—big or small—because it can have an impact on a child’s wellbeing and whether or not they reach their full potential in later life. By recognising the importance of the early years and their lasting influence, we can take action together to give children the best start to life.

We found a great resource which discusses the importance of play in children’s learning and development. Learning through play is one of the most important ways children learn and develop. Educators at your child’s early childhood education and care service might have told you that they use a ‘play based’ approach for children’s learning and development. Play is an activity where children show their remarkable ability for exploration, imagination and decision making. While play is often described as ‘children’s work’, it is intensely enjoyable for them. The type of play children engage in and its purposes change over the course of childhood from infancy to adolescence. You may have realised that as a parent, you don’t generally have to make children play or provide incentives to play. This is because children seem to have a natural urge to play and playing brings a level of pleasure and interest which means it can be maintained without external rewards. How does play support your child’s development and learning? Physical development – active play using large and small muscles such as climbing, running, ball games, digging, jumping, and dancing. This supports children’s overall health and sense of wellbeing, physical growth, appreciation for the benefits of active lifestyles and skills for independence in self-help such as dressing or feeding. Social and emotional development – dramatic and imaginative play which includes dressing up and role play can develop positive social and emotional skills and values. This provides opportunities for children to: practise how to work with other children, negotiate ideas, and make choices and decisions develop self-confidence by experiencing success and challenges learn to control their emotions, reduce impulsive behaviour, or reduce stress as they act out feelings and events that might be worrying them  develop empathy and fairness as they learn to play alongside and with other children. Cognitive development – when your child plays individually and with others their cognitive skills, such as thinking, remembering, learning and paying attention are all being developed. Children develop the following cognitive skills through play: problem solving  the power of imagination and creativity  concepts such as shapes, colours, measurement, counting and letter recognition  strengths such as concentration, persistence and resilience. Literacy and numeracy development – play requires thinking, language, interactions, curiosity and exploration. Through play children develop skills and understandings including: an increased understanding of words and their use listening and speaking skills writing skills through scribbling, painting and drawing learning how stories work (plot, characters, structure, purpose and format of words on a page) learning that objects can stand for something else (a block can be a symbol for a telephone) which is foundation learning for formal reading, spelling and numeracy because letters, words or numerals are part of symbol systems  learning that letters, words, symbols, numerals and signs have a purpose and are meaningful to others. What does a play based approach to learning look like? Educators at early childhood education and care services use a wide range of play based experiences for children’s learning and development rather than using structured ‘lessons’ or formal teaching experiences. They set up games indoors and outdoors that are age appropriate, which can be played safely and enjoyably by every child. Educators encourage children’s learning through play by: providing resources that reflect children’s ages, interests, knowledge, strengths, abilities and culture to stimulate and support play. Resources which allow open ended use of items like blocks or cardboards boxes foster creativity and the ability to manipulate concepts mentally as children. For example, turn a box into a car. planning play experiences based on the assessment of children’s individual differences, interests, developmental needs and ability. For example, as a child learns to hold a pencil to draw and write, educators will give children different sized objects to grasp, and to build strength in the child’s fingers. observing children as they play so that they can understand how they play with other children, what skills and understanding they demonstrate in play and what activities can strengthen their skills in play. joining in children’s play to extend the child’s learning and to model skills such as reasoning, appropriate language, and positive behaviours. providing large blocks of unhurried and uninterrupted time for play for children’s ideas and games to develop. How can you contribute to your child’s learning through play? Children’s success as learners depends on strong foundations developed from infancy. Play based learning fosters critical skills, understanding and dispositions which are essential for your child’s lifelong learning and wellbeing. You can encourage your child’s learning through by: sharing information about your child’s interests and abilities with their educators so that they can plan play experiences for your child based on their interests and abilities playing with your child  discussing your child’s program with the educators at your child’s service, and the activities your child enjoys playing and taking part in advocating for safe and interesting play spaces in your local community.  Source: Startingblocks.gov.au Don’t forget to share this via Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Buffer, Digg, Tumblr, Reddit, StumbleUpon, Delicious, WhatsApp, Line and Naver.