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How Lady Gowrie Bucasia Community Kindergarten Helped a “Zoomy” Boy Settle, Focus, and Thrive At Lady Gowrie Bucasia Community Kindergarten, Community Director Dorisina Penola has spent over 30 years helping children learn through play. But in recent years, like many educators, she noticed more children starting Kindy with challenges in self-regulation, attention, and focus—skills they need to succeed…
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Every experience a child (or any of us) has – a conversation, a story read aloud, a puzzle solved with a friend – leaves a trace in their brain. Some traces are fleeting, others, if significant enough, are encoded into lasting memories that shape behaviour and future learning. Learning therefore is intimately tied to memory:…
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A Transformation Through Movement and Learning Early Childhood Educators are frequently challenged to support young children with developmental immaturities. These immaturities can manifest in various ways, such as poor concentration, limited physical ability, speech and language delays, or underdeveloped sensory-motor skills. Seeking high-quality professional development, early childhood teacher Marion Collison, from Goodstart Early Learning –…
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Embedding the Learning Connections Early Years Program In the heart of the Clinton community, Kookaburra Creek Kindergarten has achieved remarkable success establishing the Learning Connections Early Years Program in their centre. The Early Years Program, a neurodevelopmental movement program, has transformed the way the kindergarten engages with the children, fostering growth, connection and enhanced learning…
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Why kids need thrill and adventure in play What is Risky Play?“A risky situation is where the outcome might be unknown. Your child might tackle it in a number of different ways; they might succeed, they might not; they might have a minor injury of some sort … but they’ll learn something along the way” [1]…
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Brain regions responsible for motor control interact with regions involved in self-regulation – movement programs therefore provide strong support for the development of self-regulation skills. What is self-regulation? Self-regulation is our ability to control our thoughts, emotions and behaviours in response to the demands of the environment. It’s the ability to return to a balanced,…
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In a recent article in The Conversation Kate Highfield highlights the importance of looking at the quality as much as the quantity of screen usage by children. The Australian 24-hour movement guidelines (REF) recommends the following quantities: no screen time for children younger than two years no more than one hour per day for children aged 2–5 years no more than…
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A recently published Canadian study has underlined the importance of tummy time for the development of gross motor skills in infants. 1 The study was undertaken by Valerie Carson and her colleagues with a group of 411 parents and their infants in Edmonton, Canada. The study method involved parents recording at ages 2,4 and 6 months the average time…
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Does your child: Constantly trip over? Frequently bump into things and people? Frequently fall from chairs? Play too rough? Use too much force when writing? – or not enough? Enjoys deep pressure or being “squished” Frequently chew on clothing or other inedible objects Have difficulty riding a bike? These are all common signs of poor…
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This week is Healthy Lunchbox Week, an initiative of Nutrition Australia that aims to inspire Australian families to create healthy and enjoyable lunchboxes. Because children consume around 30% of their daily food intake at school, what children eat at school plays a crucial role in their learning and development. The Healthy Lunchbox Week website has lots of great…
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