At the end of January 2017, more than 320,000 children will have their first day at kindergarten. Over the course of the year, early childhood teachers and educators will use their expertise and knowledge to build those children’s social, emotional, literacy and numeracy skills, their critical and creative thinking, their perseverance, sociability and self-esteem. These […]
In the past week there has been misinformed and uneducated commentary made about the early childhood sector – Early Childhood Australia was disappointed with these comments but chose to not respond in the media as it received too much media attention and we did not wish to increase the profile of the Senators involved. Below […]
This article was first published in Every Child, Vol. 22, No. 4, 2016. For more information, click here. In 1948, the international community, through the United Nations Declaration on Human Rights, affirmed that each and every one of us should have access to a number of fundamental human rights. Decades later they agreed that children, by […]
ECA has always been an advocate for children’s rights, underpinning our vision that every child is thriving and learning. This includes some of the world’s most vulnerable children, who by no choice of their own, find themselves to be refugees fleeing their home and seeking asylum on safer shores. It is therefore concerning to hear […]
My eight-year-old daughter recently complained to me about a boy in her grade. “Dad, he keeps on trying to kiss me. Today at recess he kissed me twice on the face. I keep telling him to ‘Stop!’ and he doesn’t.” In the past this incident may have been called cute. Parents or staff members may […]
The Australian Government’s Child Care Package has raised old tensions between the twin objectives of early childhood education and care – parent’s workforce participation and child development. For the first time, children may not be able to access child care subsidies if one of their parents is not undertaking work or another eligible activity. Modelling by the […]
You’ve heard it a million times before. “Children are like sponges. They just soak up every drop of information.” And to personify this sponge simile there’s even a popular Nickelodeon character called Sponge Bob Square Pants; a vapid sea sponge that spouts inane jabberwocky. Recent social research shows that the sponge or ‘fill it up’ theory […]
We have just celebrated National Children’s Week, a yearly acknowledgement of the importance of child rights in Australia. 2015 was a particularly auspicious year, as it marked 25 years since the creation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). The theme was “Children’s Rights are Human Rights”. This critical document […]
La Trobe University The recent publication of The Forgotten Children report of the Australian Human Rights Commission included 13 drawings by detained asylum seekers aged between four and 17. The drawings have been widely reproduced in recent media coverage of the report, as well as on social media campaigns. Other visual components of the report, […]
