Research Around the World-Australia

            “Every young child is thriving and learning” (Early Childhood Australia, 2014, p.1). This week I had the opportunity to explore a similar organization to the NAEYC called Early Childhood Australia and their vision to help all young children. The Early Childhood Australia website provided me with many new connections between research topics in the United States as compared with Australia.

            Currently in Australia, research topics include looking at identifying effective, preventative to childhood obesity, identifying the effects of long term care vs. family care on childhood development, and the effects and use of technology in early childhood (Early Childhood Australia, 2014). I found it very interesting how the current research in Australia focusing on early childhood developments were so similar to the current topics in the United States. Understanding how to effectively use technology in early childhood is topic I am asked about many times by families I work with, so I am excited to learn more about international perspectives on how to effectively use technology with early childhood students.

An insight I had through the exploration of Early Childhood America’s website, was how comprehensive Early Childhood Australia’s research was as they focus on the incorporation of families, practitioners, and young children when collecting their data, similar to how research in early childhood is conducted in the United States (Early Childhood Australia, 2014). For example, in a study on digital technology and the effects/benefits for early childhood children, parental and practitioner surveys were administered in order to receive opinions from a large participant pool (Early Childhood Australia, 2014). My only concern is how effective the survey format will be for their research project as the link for the survey was on their website, but I hope they also administer the website to diverse families and early childhood educators throughout their country to help receive multiple perspectives and insights on the use of technology.

Noteworthy information I found on the website pertained to previously published research articles which identified how early intervention and preventions programs focusing on maternal and children and family health improve children’s developments, even from children who came for the most disadvantageous backgrounds (Early Childhood Australia, 2014). Identifying research which will help us as educators with the children whom have grown up in least developmentally enriching environments will hopefully help us to eliminate achievement gaps and help all children succeed.

Reference

Early Childhood Australia. (2014). A voice for young children. Retrieved from

http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/.