in the classroom they ’ re already not feeling wonderful about themselves . If you have children that are feeling inadequate and that everything they do is wrong , when they get to school and they ’ re struggling , that ’ s just going to reinforce those images of themselves .
That can then feed into poor performance and into bullying behaviour , either as victim or perpetrator . It can go on to ultimately feed into early drug use . When people feel inadequate , often they turn to things like drugs to feel okay , whether it ’ s alcohol or other substances . So you can end up with a life path that doesn ’ t allow them to fulfil their potential .
Your studies sought to look at the predictors of resilience in school in the early years . What did you find were the biggest ones ? Given there will always be families which , despite the best intentions of parents , will fail to provide a nurturing environment for their children , when we look at what we can still do the biggest potentially positive influence would be if the child was read to at home : that hugely increased their chance of being okay when they started school .
There ’ s a few pathways whereby that works . One is just the fact that the parent is sitting down and having a pleasant activity with that child , because often interactions in abusive households can be quite disturbing . Just the use of words , language , that helps the brain develop . So there ’ s a number of reasons why reading at home could be helpful .
It doesn ’ t even actually necessarily have to be reading a book . It can be someone telling a child a story , so sitting down and just telling the story itself is a positive influence for children . The other thing we found is that if a child starts school and they ’ re emotionally okay , even if they ’ ve been in abusive households but they ’ ve had some other social support , then they ’ ll do better .
At a community or societal level , we need to be working with children in infancy . We know who they are , they ’ re in contact with child protection services . We need to make sure they ’ re getting the sort of trauma-based mental health and early childhood education services they need , so that by the time they hit school they won ’ t have all these emotional and developmental difficulties that we ’ re picking up in our studies .
Based on your past research as well , do you find that there is a focus on that early childhood intervention , particularly in places like schools and just from a health system perspective ? There ’ s very little in that space . There are almost no services , actually . It ’ s shocking how few services of quality there are available for our infants and young children who are distressed . A tiny part of the child and adolescent mental health service budgets go to infants , toddlers and young children . Early learning centres do what they can , but in terms of staffing ratios they really don ’ t have the capacity to work with the more troubled children .
They ’ re fine for a child that ’ s doing okay , but for more troubled children who might need speech pathology , counselling or occupational therapy : those services are very difficult to come by . There was a very interesting trial run in Victoria where children with child protection contacts were enrolled in an intensive early childhood program at around age three for two years , and had more intensive early childhood learning with a very trauma-focused lens .
After the two years , the number of children who needed emotional and social support had reduced considerably . That can make a huge difference , but we aren ’ t providing those intensive services . We seem to be helping to ensure everybody has something in the early learning sector , but for those who are really struggling , it ’ s just not intensive enough .
Do you think this lack of resources places pressure on primary school teachers and people in the early childhood sector ? Yes , absolutely . I think any primary school teacher you talk to can name the children in their class who are struggling . It ’ s very hard for them to find the time . They don ’ t necessarily have the skills and the training to work with these very troubled children . They also need to understand how to work with the parents as well . It ’ s quite a specialised area , and schools often don ’ t have the specialised resource or adequate capacity .
It would make a huge difference to the primary school sector if we know about the more troubled children , and that they ’ re already being identified by child protection services . If these children got the intensive services they need , I think it would make a huge difference to the situation in primary schools and also the pressure on primary school teachers .
The biggest potentially positive influence would be if the child was read to at home .
Based on your recent research , what are some simple strategies that teachers can use to promote resilience in children who might be struggling when they come to school ? There are a number of programs around , but I think one of the important things is to understand that children whose behaviour is distressing and disturbing , invariably that means those children are struggling emotionally .
Often there ’ s horrible stuff going on at home . So I think it ’ s really about , rather than defining children as naughty or disobedient or unresponsive or unhelpful , to think about what ’ s going on for this child and try to approach them with compassion .
What do you think are the biggest takeaways for parents and teachers when thinking about resilience and intervening when a child is young ? Certainly for parents it ’ s about taking time to engage in a positive way with your child . Basically you want to stimulate their brains in a positive way through reading , through storytelling , engaging in a nurturing way with the child .
For teachers , they ’ re often in a challenging situation with large classrooms , but also thinking about what ’ s going on for the child , what ’ s underpinning what might seem like disturbed behaviours . Often it ’ s actually the very quiet child who needs to be supported and brought out as well as the more disturbed child .
I think also for teachers it ’ s important to be doing a bit of advocacy for their children , asking : ‘ Where are the referral services ? Where can we get help for these children ?’ And I think it ’ s about putting pressure on the health system , which offers very little in terms of mental health support for our infants and children .
I think if the education sector said : ‘ This is not okay , where are we referring these children to ?’ And actually demanding referral services for these children , I think that might assist as well . ■
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