Child Wellbeing Journal
Project summary:
To address concerning data indicating a large percentage of children that are entering school without their developmental needs being adequately addressed during preschool years, a need to provide a resource for parents to better support children so they can thrive at school was identified. The creation of a child wellness journal was proposed to improve documentation of developmental needs experienced by children in the Latrobe Valley.
The Best Start partnership, which is a partnership of subject matter-experts and those directly involved in early childhood work, aims to make improvements that ultimately ensure that children engage and participate in early childhood education (kindergarten and supported playgroups) and enter school as confident and involved learners.
One of the ways the team believes they may meet this goal is with the use of something similar to the Maternal and Child Health ‘My Health, Learning and Development’ (also known as ‘the green book’) currently provided to families across Victoria. The team believes that a book like this could help both parents and practitioners to better support a child with developmental delays, by ensuring the family has a place to keep all documents, appointments, etc related to that child that can also be viewed by the practitioners working with the family (i.e., MCH nurse, paediatrician, speech therapist). The Best Start partnership believe that this could lead to improved participation in preschool and help children enter school as more confident and involved learners.
This pilot program aims to develop and codesign a prototype of a child wellness journal with local early childhood services, allied health services, education providers and families. Once the child wellness journal prototype is finalised, the journal will be piloted to around 30 families in the Latrobe Valley. The distribution of this resource will be based at Our Place at Morwell Central Primary School and will target the families engaged in the services provided at Our Place.