What’s on

The learner-friendly house Speaker Series, a Q&A with UOW Early Start researchers. Consisting of four presentations to discuss the learner friendly household and how to maximise your child’s abilities.

Week One – The importance of food and movement for learning and cognition

We know that healthy eating, physical activity and sleep are important for our children’s overall health and development. An increasing amount of research now also tells us that these healthy lifestyle behaviours can influence children’s learning and cognitive abilities. 

How are children’s learning and cognition affected by food, physical activity and sleep? This presentation will provide an overview of current research in this area. We will also discuss the current dietary and movement guidelines and what you can do practically to ensure that your child’s learning is supported through a healthy lifestyle.

You will learn:

• The dietary, physical activity and sleep factors that are associated with improved learning and cognition
• How to ensure that your child is getting a well-balanced dietary intake, and enough physical activity and sleep

Cost

Members/Engagement Centres $7.50
Non-Members $10

This Speaker Series will be delivered online via Zoom. Once you have booked, you will receive a Zoom link before the session.

About our experts

Dr Megan Hammersley
Megan is an Associate Research Fellow at Early Start, UOW. Her research is focused on supporting and promoting the development of healthy lifestyle behaviours in children. She has conducted interventions focusing on healthy eating, physical activity and sedentary behaviour in home-based and school-based settings. Megan has vast experience working as an Accredited Practising Dietitian and Nutritionist across many settings and has a specific interest in early childhood nutrition. She is passionate about supporting families in providing children with the best possible start to life through a healthy lifestyle.

Dr Myrto Mavilidi
Myrto is a Research Fellow at Early Start, UOW. Her research focuses on designing school-based physical activity interventions for children and adolescents to enhance physical, cognitive, and psychosocial outcomes. Myrto’s research explores how early childhood educators and teachers can incorporate physical activity during learning activities (e.g., active lessons or active breaks) without compromising academic outcomes. Her studies provide guidance to teachers towards successful implementation, scalability and dissemination of lessons plans aligned with the existing curricula. In addition, teachers are offered different possibilities and alternatives for physical activity participation throughout the school day.

The learner-friendly house Speaker Series, a Q&A with UOW Early Start researchers. Consisting of four presentations to discuss the learner friendly household and how to maximise your child’s abilities.

Week Two – How to see math in the home and the environment

Maths is so important to our everyday lives. Yet, we may lack confidence and knowledge to know how to engage our children with mathematical learning in the home and in our environments.

In this presentation, we will think about maths in play, and in particular how we can explore maths with children in the home with everyday items and objects from the environment. We will take a deep dive into how to play with some mathematical concepts and enrich the learning with young children. We will explore how to bring patterning, symmetry, measurement and number learning to live in our home environments.

You will learn:

• The importance of mathematics learning in the early years for future success.
• How to see maths in the home and the environment, and bring it to life in our every day.
• How to use the vehicle of play and everyday materials in the home, to engage with mathematical concepts of patterning, symmetry, measurement and number learning.
• The language of maths and how to use simple questions and mathematical terminology to extend the learning.

Cost

Members/Engagement Centres $7.50
Non-Members $10

This Speaker Series will be delivered online via Zoom. Once you have booked, you will receive a Zoom link before the session.

About our experts

Jo Grimmond
Bachelor of Education Early Childhood (Honours); PhD Candidate UOW
Jo Grimmond has over 25 years of experience working in the early childhood education sector as an early childhood teacher and centre director.  She has worked with educators and leaders to develop quality practice and learning environments. She has also held a teaching role in The Early Years at the University of Wollongong in the areas of numeracy and STEM. She currently works as a Community Engagement Coordinator with the Engagement Team at Early Start to support 46 Early Childhood Education and Care services in regional and remote areas of NSW to enrich quality practice. Her current PhD research focus is the development of a numeracy assessment tool for educators to use with children in ECEC settings. Jo has been involved in many Early Start research projects including the Fostering Effective Early Learning (FEEL) study and the PRSIST validation study. 

The learner-friendly house Speaker Series, a Q&A with UOW Early Start researchers. Consisting of four presentations to discuss the learner-friendly household and how to maximise your child’s abilities.

Week Three – The importance of play for development: A focus on literacy

We know that being literate is important for learning, leisure and work now and into our futures. We also know that early literacy is best developed through play experiences. These experiences not only teach children to read and write, but they are also powerful examples of the ways they might communicate in different ways for different reasons themselves. 

The Early Years Learning Framework defines literacy as the capacity, confidence, and disposition to use language in all its forms – music, movement, dance, storytelling, visual arts, media and drama, and of course, talking, listening, viewing, reading, and writing.

With this definition in mind, we will:

• Explore possibilities for literacy learning through play. 
• Consider the materials, time, and spaces for play, and the interactions children have with peers and adults. 
• Examine what play might offer for all children.

Cost

Members/Engagement Centres $7.50
Non-Members $10

This Speaker Series will be delivered online via Zoom. Once you have booked, you will receive a Zoom link before the session.

About our experts

Jessica Mantei is an Associate Professor in Language and Literacy and the Head of Teaching and Learning in the School of Education. She co-leads the Play, Curriculum, and Pedagogy Early Start Research Group at UOW. Jessica has extended experience with children in their initial years of school, with particular expertise in teaching reading. One of Jessica’s research interests is about the ways educators support young children’s literacy learning through play. 

Mitchell Parker is a Ph.D. candidate and member of the Early Start’s Play, Pedagogy, and Curriculum research group. As a former early childhood teacher, he uses his teaching experiences to inform his research. Mitchell is the NSW State Director of the Australian Literacy Educators’ Association (ALEA) and was awarded an ALEA Fellowship in recognition of his work in literacy education.

The learner-friendly house Speaker Series, a Q&A with UOW Early Start researchers. Consisting of four presentations to discuss the learner-friendly household and how to maximise your child’s abilities.

Week Four – Responding to Challenging Behaviours – The Important Role of Children’s Self-Regulation

This workshop is designed to support parents to recognise and respond at the moment to children’s challenging behaviours, and better understand behaviour as a communication. The workshop draws on the 5Rs framework: Relationships, Respect, Regulation, Routes, and Responses to support a deeper understanding of the complex nature of children’s behaviours while placing particular emphasis on the importance of children’s self-regulatory skills.

You will learn:
Together we will explore the way adults and our environments shape children’s self-regulation, and examine specific play-based activities that can be used to support young children across a range of contexts.

Cost

Members/Engagement Centres $7.50
Non-Members $10

This Speaker Series will be delivered online via Zoom. Once you have booked, you will receive a Zoom link before the session.

About our experts

Associate Professor Cathrine Neilsen-Hewett is Academic Director of the Early Years at the University of Wollongong. Cathrine plays a leading role in engaging with sector partners on children’s social and behavioural adjustment with organisations such as Early Childhood Australia (ECA), Catholic Education Commission (CEC) as well as the Victoria Department of Education and Training (DET) and NSW Department of Education (DoE). She is regularly invited to deliver professional development sessions on children’s behaviour and self-regulation for educators and parents both within Australia and overseas.

Natalie Day is conducting Doctoral research with Early Start, University of Wollongong, Australia, where her research aims to implement an intervention that supports parents in how to foster children’s self-regulation during play activities. Natalie completed her M.Ed at Cambridge University in 2016, where she also contributed to research on the development of playful pedagogies at Cambridge’s PEDAL Centre. Natalie is also an experienced Science teacher.

Fay Gowers is conducting Doctoral research with the School of Education, University of Wollongong, Australia, where her research aims to implement an intervention that supports early childhood educators in responding to and supporting children’s dysregulated behaviours. Fay completed her M.Ed at the University of Wollongong in 2014, where she went on to work closely with early childhood educators across NSW who are part of the Early Start Engagement Centre Network.  Fay is a lecturer and tutor in the Bachelor of Education – The Early Years at UOW.