Early Start Research
Early Start Research is a research strength of the University of Wollongong and a part of the Early Start initiative. We work with the Abbott Foundation, the World Health Organization, NSW Health, Goodstart Early Learning, the Australian Government Departments of Health and Education, ACECQA, and various other organisations collaborating on research into overcoming disadvantage and effecting real social change.
Anita Kumar: Early Start is an entity of the University of Wollongong dedicated to improving outcomes for young children and their families, we especially focus on improving outcomes for children who are living in regional and remote communities.
Tony Okely: Early Starts' research is important because it addresses some of the key problems that we see around young children, it gives them the best start to life with a particular interest in health, learning and development
Anita Kumar: everything that Early Start does we actually measure our outcomes how we actually have an impact on our community and on the children.
Tony Okely: One of the flagship projects from our Play, pedagogy and curriculum research theme has to do with children designing appropriate apps for themselves to be able to use
Maria Clara Rivera: this research can empower children and develop them into adults who have a sense of self, and the knowledge that they can influence digital play or different aspects of their life, whether it's an adequate nutrition freedom for violence or whatever form children's play may take in the future.
Anita Kumar: our researchers work in partnership with the World Health Organization in developing physical health guidelines for young children around food, movement, screen time.
Tony Okely: We also have an Early Start Discovery Space in which we have over 150,000 visits per year, so it gives us the opportunity to be able to design experiences that will maximize the benefits for children's learning, and it also allows us to work with the community around research, that will help improve children's learning and development.
Anita Kumar: We're quite proud of what early start has achieved in this short period anytime they manage to engage with the community, being able to have our research translate into practice and being able to capture that we are making an impact on children's outcome.
Tony Okely: What the world looks like in 20 years is children thriving and being able to see every child reach their potential