Background: Australia has limited supports to help families where Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) impacts children and young people. National Organisation for Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder Australia (NOFASD), in conjunction with the University of Otago, New Zealand, piloted and established a 7-week online program to assist caregivers to…

Holistic and ecological approaches to mental health support have been identified by many as best-practice approaches for creating and sustaining well-being. Those who experience mental health challenges including, for example, Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD), often struggle to find adequate, sustainable and ongoing care from clinical…

Striking a balance between being a parent and being a student can place heavy demands on time and energy. Many students who are parents have employment obligations and financial concerns which create additional barriers to success. Despite these difficulties, institutional support for students who are parents is often limited. Common challenges…

In 2023, the Australian Education Research Organisation (AERO) investigated student attendance in Australian schools at the request of Education Ministers. Two literature reviews were commissioned as part of this project. This rapid literature review is the result of a systematic review of 332 peer-reviewed journal articles that describe studies…

Including parents of children with developmental delays in early intervention programs has been widely endorsed as best practice across the multiple disciplines that work in that context. Parents have echoed that sentiment, commenting on the benefits of being able to apply skills in broader family and community contexts. Despite a 20-plus year…

This paper presents findings from mixed-method research exploring 3-5-year-old children's social interaction experiences while attending one of three different early childhood settings: a therapeutic family support program; a supported playgroup; or a preschool. Thematic analysis of child interviews revealed differences in how children experienced…

The Australian Council for Educational Research's submission to the Australian Government Standing Committee on Employment, Education and Training's Public Enquiry into Adult literacy and its importance highlights the importance of these skills to Australia's well-being and economy, and calls on the government to continue participation in an…

This book explores pedagogical practices for early childhood education around the world in a collective of practices. The motivation for this book was to collect pedagogical practices from around the world to showcase the important work of early childhood teachers. Each country in this book shares unique features of their pedagogical work to show…

Embracing and embedding the rich cultural knowledge, languages, concepts and skills that Aboriginal families and children bring to playgroup is key to empowering families as their children's first teachers and strengthening young children's self-esteem, pride, confidence and identities. In this article, we share our story of how we have explored…

Parental deployment and frequent relocations exert significant stress on children from military families. This stress can be extremely disruptive to young children's social, cognitive and behavioural development. It can result in negative social, emotional, and physical responses. There are a broad range of programs, resources, and services…

Family-Centred Early Intervention (FCEI), an international congress that meets biannually, concurred that programmes serving young deaf and hard of hearing (D/HH) children and their families should include D/HH adults when offering family social and emotional support (Principle 4) and engaging in collaborative teamwork with D/HH adults (Principle…

It is generally acknowledged that alternative strategies are required to enable children with disability to access storytelling activities. In this study, we sought to analyse the benefits of one such strategy: an arts-based multisensory story and rhyme program delivered to children with Down syndrome and autism spectrum disorder. In order to…