The Words Grow Minds early childhood pilot campaign wrapped up in Mount Gambier last week.
The campaign was developed by the Early Years Taskforce and aims to build awareness about the importance of early childhood interactions and reverse the upwards trend of almost one in four South Australian children starting school developmentally vulnerable.
Mount Gambier was the first region in the state to benefit from the Words Grow Minds campaign, which is bound for Whyalla next year.
Early Years Taskforce chair Kate Ellis, who launched the campaign in October, said she was pleased with how the initiative progressed during the six weeks of the campaign.
“We have seen an amazingly positive response from the Mount Gambier community,” Ms Ellis said.
“We have seen people getting involved in the campaign, people taking home their resource packs, signing up to the Facebook page and a huge number of hits on the website as well.
“But I have to say what I am most pleased with is the way the local community has now picked up the campaign and is running with it themselves.
“People are finding new ways and local ways to promote the campaign and to get involved and it is just amazing, it is all we ever could have hoped for.”
Ms Ellis said the Words Grow Minds campaign had received supportive feedback from parents in the wider Mount Gambier community.
“A lot of parents know that – of course they want to interact with their children – but sometimes it is hard to think of new ways to do that and so parents have really loved the different tips, different pointers for different days on activities they can do with their child,” she said.
“It is great to see that has been embraced.
“Having some firm suggestions on different things that you could do and different options has been something that parents have responded well to.”
Ms Ellis said in a few weeks’ time the community would be surveyed to determine if it had learned something from Words Grow Minds and whether attitudes had changed.
“We will also be looking at the attendance rates at services for young children and their families and seeing if the promotions has helped the attendance rates,” she said.
“That would be amazing if we can show that here has been a concrete difference that has been made in just a few weeks.”
