Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander social skills book packs

                    This program successfully delivered an innovative reading program for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children aged 3-5. The project included the publication of a book in the Kaurna language.
                

like a bag of surprises. A big showbag, loving the clapsticks and props. It's great to listen to pronunciation. raised interest in the other books. easier to connect with culture and language. - Chantel, Deadly Parenting

About

This project has developed 600 ‘My Feelings’ bookbags. The program was aimed at Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in the City of Onkaparinga and Port Adelaide Enfield. The bags were delivered through Kalaya Children’s Centre, Taikurrendi Children’s Centre, Kura Yerlo Inc’s Children’s Centre, public libraries and several community centres.

The bookbags contained:

a book written in Kaurna (Ngaityu Muiyu) and a book written by a First Nations author
finger puppets as a tool for storytelling
clapping sticks for storytelling
information from Parenting SA.

Background

The project was delivered by the City of Port Adelaide Enfield, which has about 300 children between 0-4 years old with an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander background, and the City of Onkaparinga, which has about 400.

The project responded to data from the Australian Early Development Census (AEDC) and a target in the South Australia Implementation Plan for Closing the Gap. This target was aimed at increasing the proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children being developmentally on track.

Outcomes

This project worked through increasing children's emotional and social outcomes by increasing their access to books and by encouraging parents and caregivers to share books with their children.

This was achieved by giving Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander pre-schoolers access to quality resources written in their Kaurna language. The book had a First Nation creator, and images of children from Kalaya Children's Centre were used in the book. The book supported learning and conversation around feelings and emotions.

A total of 575 children (0-5 years) were reached through this project, including 480 children from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander backgrounds.

The project team encouraged participating organisations to make the bookbags available as part of their resources so all visiting children can access them.

The program highlighted the following key improvements:

Parents reported that children had higher levels of engagement as they listened to the books while playing with the included resources.
The families at Kalaya Children’s Centre reported a strong increase in frequency of conversations with their children about their feelings after using the packs for five months.
Families who responded that their children could articulate their feelings well or very well increased from 50% to 90% by the end of the program.
Families also reported their children were playing better with other kids. Responses of playing well or very well increased from 81% to 100%.

Networking/Ongoing Relationships

Relationships with local early childhood learning centres have been strengthened across both council areas. The project supported both councils to establish a stronger relationship with local Aboriginal Health Services.

Packs have supported existing First Nations programs, particularly parenting support groups, e.g. Deadly Parenting and a young mum’s group. The organisations, Families Growing Together and Parenting SA, worked together to contribute to this project by producing a Deadly Parenting handout for the pack. The handout was based on the “Iceberg Theory”, which encourages caregivers to look beyond their child’s behaviour at the tip of the iceberg and to their feelings and emotions below the water’s surface. This handout featured Uluru, instead of an iceberg.