Critical early childhood campaign ‘Words Grow Minds’ was launched at the Mount Gambier Library on Sunday.
The campaign was developed by the Early Years Taskforce and intends to raise awareness about the importance of early childhood development, with taskforce chair Kate Ellis officially unveiling the pilot campaign with Raising Literacy Australia chief executive Elizabeth Davis.
“We know there are a lot of young families in Mount Gambier and also there’s already this great network of early childhood services, so we thought that we would start here,” Ms Ellis said.
According to Australian Early Development Consensus statistics, almost one in four South Australian children are developmentally vulnerable when starting school.
South Australian children are also more likely to be vulnerable on the five measured developmental domains than the national average when starting school.
The Early Years Taskforce strives to reverse the upward trends and Ms Ellis said ultimately the campaign encourages increased focus on the importance of early childhood.
“There’s some really alarming statistics around one in five parents believe their child’s life outcomes are determined by the genes they were born with,” Ms Ellis said.
“We know that is not true and we know the most critical time in any human’s life – in terms of their brain development – is the first three years.
“If we can start to increase the awareness around that and make sure that we recognise that it’s about fun with your child, but it’s also really important in terms of their development that we have as many positive interactions as possible.”
Ms Ellis said the pair were excited about the advertisement which will be played on local television as well as print media, because it was fun and catchy while portraying an important message.
Ms Davis said the campaign launch was a special time and a reward for the hard work the taskforce had devoted over the last six months.
“This is not something that is just an advertisement, it is something that comes from solid research,” Ms Davis said.
“Thirty-five different organisations who have, at their coalface, their whole interest is early learning literacy and are heavily involved in their service provisions.
“So we are really hoping this will have a significant impact and change those numbers of one in four children in South Australia not being school ready.
“We want parents to understand they have, in their power, the opportunity to read or to talk, sing and play every day with their child and that will be the difference in ensuring they’re school ready.”
