Parents and children came together last week for a community playgroup session, to celebrate the Words Grow Mind campaign.
Launched last month, by former Federal Minister for Early Childhood and Chair of the Early Years Taskforce, Kate Ellis, Words Grow Minds is now in full swing across Mount Gambier.
The campaign aims to promote better outcomes for children, and revolves around a simple ‘call to action’ – Talk to, read to, play with and sing to your baby.
Kelly Lynch, Children’s and Youth Services Coordinator, City of Mount Gambier said the playgroup session brought together parents and key childhood agencies in an effort to improve long-term outcomes for Mount Gambier children.
“We know that 80 per cent of a child’s brain develops in the first three years and those small interactions that parents, caregivers, and adults can do with children in those early years, can really affect the trajectory of the outcomes,” she said.
“The reason this has all happened is because there’s a census that happens every three to four years around Australia called the Early Childhood index of development, and in that, South Australia is falling behind the other states.”
The Mount Gambier Library currently runs programmes for children at the library, and Ms Lynch was hopeful that more parents would engage with their children and the community.
“We run four programmes a week in the library, and this is what we do, so this kind of reinforces to us that we’re doing the right thing,” she said.
“We’ve got a really high attendance rate, so that’ll continue.”
Also attending the playgroup session were other agencies such as Child and Family Health and Playgroup SA.
“Hopefully, by getting other agencies involved, we will all talk with each other and see that some new parents and caregivers come out of their homes a little bit more engaged with programmes and services,” Ms Lynch said.
“The Words Grow Minds minds campaign call to action can be done at home but we believe that getting out in the community is good for everyone, and for adults to all engage together and help each other to raise the kids.
“This can be done at home on your own, you don’t have to come out and do it, but isn’t it great to come out with other people and all interact and mingle together for the benefit of ourselves and the kids because happy parents make happy children too.”
Early Years Taskforce, Chair, Kate Ellis was delighted to see the campaign in action and embraced by the local Mount Gambier community.
“We are pleased to partner with early childhood service providers in Mount Gambier to deliver Words Grow Minds to families right across the region. The response from providers and families since we launched last month has been outstanding,” Ms Ellis said.
“The planned playgroup session provided a fantastic avenue to bring together parents, caregivers and a range of local early childhood service providers from Mount Gambier, to celebrate Words Grow Minds and instil the key call to action, talk, read, sing, play every day.”
For further information on Words Grow Minds, visit wordsgrowminds.com.au
