Tim Moore

The best opportunity to build a strong foundation for lifelong health and wellbeing occurs during the first 1000 days – the period from conception, throughout pregnancy, and during a child’s first two years. This Policy Brief outlines the implications of this critical time, identifies factors that place children at risk, and recommends a coordinated approach that addresses children’s needs in order to optimise their health and wellbeing, now and into the future.

Our current early childhood system of generic and specialist services has difficulty meeting the needs of all children. Generic services have particular difficulty meeting the needs of children who are vulnerable or at risk, who have behavioural or emotional problems, or have developmental disabilities and delays, and cannot easily access appropriate specialist support. At the same time, the specialist services have difficulty providing a comprehensive range of services to all children and families in need, and cannot easily arrange access for children and families to the generic services that they need. Alternative ways of co-ordinating and delivering services need to be explored. This paper presents the rationale for moving towards a universal early childhood system of services. The different forms of service (universal, targetted and clinical) are described, and ways of co-ordinating and delivering these services are analysed. Evidence regarding the effectiveness of the various f...

This paper draws on a resource developed by the Centre for Community Child Health at the request of the Office for Children and Early Childhood Development (OCECD) of the Victorian Department of Education and Early Childhood Development. The initiative forms part of Victoria's Plan for Improving Access and Participation in a Kindergarten Program for Children At Risk of or Experiencing

This paper explores the implications for early childhood intervention services of social changes and the challenges that these have posed for human services. Although based on the Australian experience, many of the developments and problems described are evident in other countries as well. Over the past two or three decades, there have been significant social and economic changes in many Western societies that have had a profound effect on families and the services that support them. These changes have been accompanied by worsening developmental outcomes for adolescents and young adults. Concerns about these trends have led to concerted efforts to understand the early origins of these problems. All of these developments have led to a better understanding of the nature and significance of the early years and to major efforts to reconfigure early childhood and family support system to achieve better long term outcomes for children. The paper describes how these changes manifest themse...

This paper addresses the question of how we can build more cohesive communities for children and families. Who are the communities that we in early childhood and family support services serve? Where do we find them? And how can we best support them and meet their needs? In answering these questions, two lines of research and theory are considered. One concerns complexity theory, which suggests that a threshold level of regular contact with other people (eg. parents of young children) is needed for a consensus about their collective needs to emerge. The other concerns the importance of social support, how people's personal networks and social contacts affect their personal well-being and parenting. A third factor that must be taken into account is that our existing early childhood and early childhood intervention service system is no longer meeting all the needs of all the children as effectively as it once did. Implications of these factors for the early childhood and early chil...

Including young children with disabilities and developmental delays can seem a daunting prospect to early childhood educators and carers. This is particularly so if we think of such children as having qualitatively different needs from children without disabilities and as requiring specialist management and teaching strategies that mainstream educators and carers do not possess. But is this the case? To address this question, we need to examine the principles of best practice that have been found to be most effective in working with such children. When we compare these principles and those that inform practice with children who do not have disabilities, we find that these are more the same than different. Furthermore, it becomes apparent that working with children with disabilities actually sharpens our understanding of how all children learn and of the conditions that promote their learning. This realisation demands that we reconsider the images that we hold of children with disabi...

This paper addresses the principal theme of this conference, namely, broadening our vision of how we can build more cohesive communities for children and families. Who are the communities that we in early childhood and early childhood intervention serve? Where do we find them? And how can we best support them and meet their needs? In answering these questions, two lines of research and theory are considered. One concerns complexity theory, which suggests that a threshold level of regular contact with other people (eg. parents of young children) is needed for a consensus about their collective needs to emerge. The other concerns the importance of social support, how people's personal networks and social contacts affect their personal well-being and parenting. A third factor that must be taken into account is that our existing early childhood and early childhood intervention service system is no longer meeting all the needs of all the children as effectively as it once did. Implic...

The challenges currently facing specialist disability services need to be seen in the context of the difficulties being experienced by all human services in meeting the needs of children and their families. Reasons for this state of affairs include significant changes in families and family circumstances, and the problems the existing service system has in providing integrated services to families with complex needs. As a consequence, there are worsening developmental outcomes evident in adolescents and young adults, which have prompted renewed efforts to understand the factors that promote or undermine optimal functioning in children and families. Specialist disability services are also having difficulty meeting all the needs of eligible children and adults, for many of the same reasons as other services. Children and adults with disabilities have many needs in common with those without disabilities, and the challenge is how to provide integrated services that meet both their speci...

As our understanding of the nature and neurobiology of early childhood development continues to deepen, the vital role played by relationships has become increasingly apparent. What has also become clear is that, not only do children develop through their relationships with parents and carers, but relationships continue to be of central importance to people's ongoing development and well-being. Therefore, the relationships that parents have with others, including professionals, have a significant effect on their ability to be function well as parents. This new understanding has profound implications for human services. It means that relationships are both a focus of intervention and the means through which intervention is delivered. Thus, the relationships between parent and child or caregiver and child are an important focus of intervention, while the relationship between service provider and parent or service provider and child are the means through which change occurs. This p...

Our current early childhood system of generic and specialist services has difficulty meeting the needs of all children. Generic services have particular difficulty meeting the needs of children who are vulnerable or at risk, who have behavioural or emotional problems, or have developmental disabilities and delays, and cannot easily access appropriate specialist support. At the same time, the specialist services have difficulty providing a comprehensive range of services to all children and families in need, and cannot easily arrange access for children and families to the generic services that they need. Alternative ways of co-ordinating and delivering services need to be explored. This paper presents the rationale for moving towards a universal early childhood system of services. The different forms of service (universal, targetted and clinical) are described, and ways of co-ordinating and delivering these services are analysed. Evidence regarding the effectiveness of the various f...

To gather information from paediatricians concerning their attitudes to early intervention services for young children with developmental disabilities and to study their referral practices. Two hundred and ninety-five Australian paediatricians completed a postal questionnaire. Paediatricians presented a positive view of early intervention, particularly for its beneficial impact on families, and perceived the quality of services to be comprehensive or adequate. There were few differences between States, or between country or metropolitan areas. Most paediatricians make prompt referrals to early intervention services when a child has an established disability. Referral is much less likely with suspected delay. Paediatricians are aware of the benefits of early intervention but additional information concerning the role of these services and their significant impact on families and children should be provided.

This presentation reports on the key findings of a national survey of the knowledge base and training needs of those working with young children and their families. A review of the literature review was conducted to identify what the core curriculum should comprise - this includes knowledge of the key principles of child development and the factors that effect the capacity of families to raise their children as they would like, and skills and values in how to work with children, families and communities, and how to work effectively with other professionals and services. The survey showed that no single profession had all the knowledge, skills and values needed to work effectively with young children and their families, although all professions had some of them. While knowledge can be learned at an undergraduate level through lectures, skills and values need to be taught on the job through supervision, mentoring, and ongoing training. The survey showed that supervision and mentoring ...

In the inaugural Pauline McGregor Memorial Address given at ECIA's 7 th National Conference in Adelaide in 2004, Christine Johnston spoke of 'robust hope', and how we might find a home for early childhood intervention in the changing early years landscape. This paper expands upon that theme, making the case that the future for early childhood intervention services lies in being part of a collective effort to build a universal early childhood service system from the ground up. The paper begins by outlining the strengths and weaknesses of both the current system of early childhood intervention services and the current system of mainstream early childhood and family support services. In both cases, the key question to be asked is whether these sets of services are able to achieve the outcomes we want in their present form or whether they need to be reconfigured. It is argued that the efficacy of both systems has been compromised by the dramatic social changes that have occu...

This paper explores the nature and significance of relationships in the lives of children with and without developmental disabilities. It focuses on the importance of parents, caregivers and professionals developing responsive and caring relationships with children, and how these relationships form the basis of development. The paper begins by exploring the central role that relationships play in the development of young children. It pulls together evidence regarding relationships and why these are important – the neurobiology of interpersonal relationships, the role of attachments, and the consequences of lack of responsiveness (neglect), erratic responsiveness, and negative responsiveness (abuse). Children develop through the medium of relationships, and the nature and quality of those relationships have profound developmental consequences. The paper then explores how these processes apply to children with developmental disabilities. Such children have the same developmental needs...

... Page 9. REFERENCES Gerhardt, S. (2004). Why Love Matters: How Affection Shapes a Baby'sBrain. London, UK: Brunner-Routledge Rhode Island KIDS COUNT (2005). Getting Ready: Findings from the National School Readiness Indicators Initiative - A 17 State Partnership. ...

... In short, somebody's got to be crazy about that kid. ... development is the child's emotional, physical, intellectual and social need for ongoing, mutual interaction with a caring adult or adults ... This involves taking pride in what one does and enjoying that the attempt to do it well for the ...

The circumstances in which families are raising young children have altered dramatically in the past 50 years. While many of these social changes have been beneficial, there have been some unintended side effects that have resulted in negative or 'rotten'outcomes for young people and families. Parenting has becoming more challenging, and those families with least resources are struggling to raise their children as they (and we) would wish. This paper looks at two major challenges that face us today: how to make sense of the social ...

Background There are a number of reasons why the services that support young children and their families need to be reconfigured. In our work at the Centre for Community Child Health, we have identified four main reasons why we need to rethink the way we support families with young children:

Children with special health care needs are an important population for educational and health service providers. Accurate information about the prevalence and characteristics of these children and their families is needed to inform the planning and development of systems of care, yet data in Australia are currently lacking. This study utilizes population-level data from the Australian Early Development Index, a teacher-rated checklist, to provide estimates of the prevalence and developmental and demographic characteristics of Australian children with special health care needs on entrance to school. Four percent of children were reported with established special health care needs, and a further 18% were identified by teachers as "of concern." These children showed higher rates of vulnerability across all domains of development. Although children with established special health care needs were represented across demographic profiles, proportions were greater among boys, those from lower socioeconomic status communities, and Indigenous and older children. In contrast, those living in more remote settings were as likely to be identified as "of concern" as their peers but were less likely to have established special health care needs. These findings have important implications for service provision and policy development. There are substantial opportunities to reorient schooling and early childhood systems to better detect and accommodate the needs of these children.