A social enterprise providing education and information to protect and enhance the mental health of young people
It’s the end of the first year of school for many children and proud parents. Some children may be reading quicker than their classmates, others slower; some can add double digits, others only single. What’s normal? Not all babies talk, walk and are toilet-trained by the same age and it’s the same thing as the [...]
New Australian research into body image and eating disorders in adolescents has found an alarming rise in the prevalence of chewing and spitting out food. More than one in ten of the cohort of over 5,000 11- to 19-year-olds reported having spat out food at least once per week, with 2.5% having done so four [...]
Regardless of whether you teach in remote, rural, regional, or metropolitan schools, you can expect to come across a child in your classroom who has experienced trauma. Understanding the impact of trauma on learning capability may assist you to create trauma-sensitive learning environments. What is trauma? Adverse childhood experiences (ACE) are stressful or traumatic events, [...]
The Australian Bureau of Statistics shows children are mostly likely to start studying music between the ages of nine and 11. Researchers in a 2009 UK study suggested the dramatic drop in music tuition after age 11 was linked to children starting high school. The study also revealed the main reasons for children ending music [...]
We all want to reduce drug-related harm and ensure young people don’t take unnecessary risks. But decades of research shows fear isn’t an effective way to do this. This week, Newscorp Australia released The Ripple Effect, a series of articles and accompanying videos about party drugs, aimed at parents of young people. Rather than drawing [...]
It's difficult to not drink in Australia, and if anything, it's even harder for teens. Adolescence is a time of desperately wanting to fit in and be accepted, and many teens see drinking as one of the easiest ways to achieve this. On the other hand, parents (and other adults responsible for teens) are generally [...]
When I was younger, I decided to learn Greek. I learnt the letter-sound correspondences and could say the words – the sounds, that is. But although I could and still can decode these words, I can’t actually read Greek because I don’t know what the words mean. Being able to make the connection between the [...]
More than 600 schools have been closed, and some damaged, in recent days as bushfires rage across Queensland and New South Wales. Some students have been urgently evacuated while in school. People have lost homes and animals and are experiencing significant distress. Research shows somewhere between 7% and 45% of children suffer depression after experiencing [...]
Children are too rarely asked their perspectives on public spaces. Traditionally, adults make choices for children, particularly about how they live and play. In yet-to-be-published research* on behalf of a local council, we asked 75 children aged 7-12 from ten primary schools in a disadvantaged area of Sydney to map what they value in their [...]
If you have kids, chances are you’ve worried about their presence on social media. Who are they talking to? What are they posting? Are they being bullied? Do they spend too much time on it? Do they realise their friends’ lives aren’t as good as they look on Instagram? We asked five experts if social [...]
