Research shows that the first years of a child’s life may be the optimal window for establishing healthy eating behaviours. Like all child development, learning to eat is a skill that takes time and practice. As parents, there are a number of things you can do...
In Australia, on any given day, about 43,000 children have a parent in prison and there is no formal system to support them, wrotes Catherine Flynn. We have to use the word “about”, as there is no official process to identify this group of children. There...
Dr Jeanne Marie Iorio and Professor Nicola Yelland look at why living in the 21st century is so complex for children If you spend just five minutes thinking about young children, how do you see them? Where do you see them? Playing on the playground? Being...
Lisa Johnson wavers about giving straight answers to kids’ curly questions. “Mummy, what does ‘rape’ mean?” Five simple words, one short question, but when coming out of the mouth of a chirpy eight-year-old boy, quite disturbing. So disturbing, in fact, that my friend, the mother of...
It can feel overwhelming to talk to a child about difficult things that are happening in the news or at home. In this resource, we share suggestions for talking with a child about difficult current events, listening to a child’s feelings, and loving them during challenging...
‘Maeve’s law’ would let IVF parents access technology to prevent mitochondrial disease. Here’s what the Senate is debating, report David Thorburn and Megan Munsie The Senate has been debating “Maeve’s law” – a proposal to legalise access to new assisted reproductive techniques that will reduce the...
‘We get the raw deal out of almost everything’ Lucas Walsh, Beatriz Gallo Cordoba, Blake Cutler, Cathy Waite and Masha Mikola look at the Australian Youth Barometer Young people today are coming of age in the middle of a global pandemic, soaring house prices, an unpromising job...
By normalising brilliant women to our daughters and our sons, we make room for those women. If we don’t, it becomes a real problem for successful women when those boys become men, reports researcher, Dr Dana McKay On International Women’s Day, like many people, I will...
Recent discoveries about brain development have gone some way towards unlocking the mysteries of the teenage mind, writes Dr Tom Whelan. The word puberty is derived from the Latin ‘pubescere’ which means ‘to grow hairy’. As such, it accurately signifies the beginnings of that strange and...
Maxine Clark’s son begins to ponder the more obvious markers of his Jamaican heritage. “Your mum’s brown,” a little girl at my son’s childcare centre announced matter-of-factly to him when I arrived to pick him up last week. It wasn’t a criticism; it wasn’t an insult....
