A group of Monash University researchers report that over the past 20 years, there have been monumental shifts in the way we work with young people with disability and their families. Back in the 1990s, when a child was diagnosed with autism it followed a sad...
Anne Woodin finds that her son’s ability to read creates good challenges for him, and difficult ones for her. When you are pregnant, you don’t think about actually having the baby for the first couple of months. During the last couple of months, it is all...
Researchers Rebecca English, Chris Krogh, Giuliana Liberto, and Karleen Gribble say, Australia needs more flexible options Schools were thrown into a spin by the COVID-19 pandemic. When children were sent home to learn remotely, teaching methods remained largely the same. Many children, parents and teachers were...
Stress is common among teachers, and recent reports suggest it’s getting worse, write researchers Rebecca J. Collie and Caroline F. Mansfield We need to understand the sources of this stress to improve support for teachers. Growing teacher shortages in Australia underscore the need for this support. It...
This is why it matters – and we can do something about it, write researchers Linda J. Graham Callula Killingly Jenna Gillett-Swan and Penny Van Bergen “School SUX!” We’ve all heard it and some of us have felt it. It’s such a common sentiment that parents and teachers...
Time in hospital sets back tens of thousands of children’s learning each year, but targeted support can help them catch up, reports Rebecca Mitchell and Anne McMaugh NAPLAN scores can tell us about a child’s learning, but can they also help us to support learners who...
Louise Hartley laments the erosion in social mores, and finds a trip to the ballet with her children an extremely exasperating excursion. It was my children’s first trip to the ballet. As we found our seats, I explained to them the importance of being quiet and...
Sarah Halfpenny reflects on some of the more character-building experiences of her life. My first face-to-face encounter with Hector the Road Safety Cat was not a good one. Despite his daily televised preachings of road awareness in an attempt to save young lives, he almost cost...
How do we protect kids from abuse in sport, writes Blake Bennett, without creating a ‘culture of suspicion’ that ruins it for everyone? Although sport is often touted as a vehicle for positive experiences, many investigations into sporting cultures – particularly high performance sport – have...
‘Tapping into children’s most instinctive desire to play outside is the greatest opportunity parents have to foster a lifelong connection to nature, and it’s protection,’ writes Lukas Ritson It’s hard to ignore the urgency of climate change action. As parents, we want to inspire change for...
