QUE Club members learned about how a baby’s brain grows in utero, and then continues to grow rapidly during the first three to four years of life.
In her presentation to our club’s monthly meeting the Executive Director of Paint the Town REaD (PTTR) Barbie Bates OAM said the first 1,000 days of a child’s life shaped their development and wellbeing. The biggest growth of a baby’s brain is from birth to 12 months/2yrs old.
Barbie said that was why reading, talking, singing, drawing, playing with children every day from birth supported their early brain development and prepared them for reading and writing at school.
Barbie reminded us that the birthplace of Paint the Town REaD was in Parkes, and that there were amazing developments and initiatives which continued to spread the word, for example: This year it is expected that 100 towns in all six states will participate in Paint the Town REaD; ‘Books for Bubs in Preemie Wards’ – so parents, who can’t hold their preemie, can read to their baby and establish a bond; Chief Inspector of Blacktown Police station places pre-loved books in the waiting room and in every patrol car because he noticed this helped children’s stress levels drop; a study at Western Sydney University had second trimester mums read a book to their babies for a week, they then placed a foetal heart monitor on while the mums read a different book, and they found the heart rate increased. In utero, babies react!
Our QUE Club continues to provide new books to every newborn baby in Parkes. We also contribute annually to early childhood development by supporting hearing and speech assessments. Several local schools have better learning environments because of the Soundfield systems we have donated to school classrooms.
By Lynn Rogers