Learn more about the program design and impact of this South Australian early childhood development campaign.
Research shows that early childhood is a crucial time for brain formulation and development in children, and that reading has a positive role to play in supporting this development.
Abbey Belton, Project Officer at Words Grow Minds, tells us more about their information and awareness-raising campaign aimed at parents in South Australia.
What is Words Grow Minds?
Words Grow Minds is an Australian-first early childhood development campaign which aims to increase public and parental awareness of the importance of early childhood development and the life-changing impact positive interactions with babies and young children have in the first three years of life.
Words Grow Minds gets straight to the heart of how parents and caregivers can help young children to thrive – and it’s as simple as talking, playing, reading and singing together from birth. The campaign is universal, aiming to shift attitudes of the broader community as well as those of the parents of young children.
More than 30 participating organisations, including public libraries, playgroups, outreach and health services are amplifying the core messages to the community, along with distributing 21,000 resource packs to South Australian families.
How does it work?
Words Grow Minds was developed by the South Australian Early Years Taskforce, a coalition of government and non-government early years services led by Raising Literacy Australia, to reverse worrying trends in the state’s Australian Early Development Census (AEDC) results.
Funded by the South Australian government, Words Grow Minds delivers a key recommendation from the Royal Commission into Early Childhood Education and Care. The program was successfully piloted in two regional locations in South Australia before receiving funding for a statewide rollout.
The campaign consists of three different strategies that deliver the core messages to families and the community, with a supporting website packed with ideas about how to interact with children in the early years.
These include:
- A public messaging campaign: The colourful characters ‘Bobble and Bib’ can be seen across the South Australian media landscape in a delightful advertising campaign that encourages parents and carers to ‘talk, play, read and sing with your baby’ to nurture their growing minds. Whether it’s on the television, the radio, on public transport or in local shopping centres, the audience will be met with the same consistent, recognisable, friendly and accessible message.
- Professional Learning: The team at Words Grow Minds has developed a series of online modules and webinars, available for free to support and upskill service providers working with very young children and their families. The webinars are backed by the latest research, with contributions from early childhood specialists and plenty of practical examples. The course aims to build the capacity of practitioners and ensure that the information given to families across the sector is clear and consistent wherever they seek advice.
- Resources direct to families: 21,000 WGM Family Resource Packs are being delivered to families of children aged 0-3 in 2024. We are distributing them through early years services as it gives them the opportunity to role model positive interactions and empower families to support their child’s development.
Why is it effective?
At its core, Words Grow Minds provides a framework with simple, evidence-based messages that all services can incorporate into their existing programs – we’re not trying to reinvent the wheel or overhaul the incredible work that is already happening with children and families. Research tells us that none of the three strategies implemented alone are nearly as effective for shifting attitudes and awareness as when they are delivered concurrently.
The messages we are delivering to families are clear, consistent, and distil complex concepts from neuroscience into accessible language. We find parents and carers are instantly empowered when they understand that the simplest things they do with their children are often the most effective for fostering their child’s brain development and laying down future foundations for learning.
The Words Grow Minds program is also universal, so it doesn’t matter which service a family accesses – whether it is the Child and Family Health Service, their local library or community playgroup – they will receive the same information. This is the key. The regional pilot locations of the campaign boasted impressive results. The Mount Gambier Library reported a 24% increase in borrowing rates of children’s picture books, and the uptake of child development checks improved significantly in Whyalla.
What are the challenges?
We know that it is often not enough to simply give families books to read, though it certainly does help. It’s also important to role model ways to use books and play resources and support families to build their own capacity.
The main challenge we face as the campaign rolls out is ensuring that we are reaching children and families that may be disengaged from the services that are facilitating and supporting the campaign. Ensuring that we reach as many South Australian children as possible regardless of their location or socioeconomic background has always been at the centre of Words Grow Minds, as well as encouraging families to connect with the services available to them. To overcome this challenge, we are running an extensive social media campaign to coincide with paid advertising, offering practical ideas and tips for how to engage with young children. Surveys conducted prior to the pilot programs told us that social media is the main source of information on early childhood development for families, and this addition is aimed squarely at supporting the broadest possible reach.
We are working closely with early years service providers across the health and education sectors to continually reflect on how we might reach disengaged families. The inclusion of a cobranded Words Grow Minds and Libraries SA library card in all resource packs also aims to drive interactions and encourage a lifelong love of reading. We have seen more than 250 new registrations with these so far this year.
Find out more: https://wordsgrowminds.org.au/