What does it take for a child to flourish? Not just be free from disease or illness, but really thrive?
Early-life influences set an individual’s health and developmental trajectory for the rest of life. Children who start school developmentally behind often have poorer educational and health outcomes and reduced quality of life.
The years before a child starts school provide a window of opportunity for early intervention and targeted support programs to be most effective. Very young children are learning and developing every day, absorbing everything around them and we want to help those influences to be as positive as possible.
ORIGINS is developing further research opportunities, in addition to our core research work (find out what ORIGINS is all about here), aiming to support and nurture a child’s environment to place them on a flourishing trajectory, equipped with the necessary tools to reach their full potential.
We want to make sure our research is useful and relevant to young families, and we can achieve this by consulting with young families themselves and those in the community that work or interact with young children.
We are currently undertaking this consultation process and questionnaires have been completed by more than 700 people. We are now moving to conduct focus groups with small groups of those respondents.
The outcomes of these initiatives will help to identify priority areas for young people so our research will be impactful and relevant.
Please contact the ORIGINS team if you have any questions about this project: originsproject@telethonkids.org.au