Better Beginnings encourages families to Read, Yarn, Sing, Draw and Play with their child every day.

Community organisations, health services and public libraries are well positioned to encourage families in their communities to engage in early literacy practices at home. This can be done by building on the literacy strengths of Indigenous children and families and providing the resources for families to continue developing these skills. 

The Better Beginnings Indigenous Program believes that Indigenous children have strengths for building early literacy skills due to the strong storytelling element in Indigenous cultures, code-switching often seen in Indigenous children, and tendency to learn systems as a whole. 

Better Beginnings promotes a two-ways or both-ways educational strategy that recognises Indigenous knowledge and ways of learning as valid. This allows flexibility so that Indigenous children can learn both the “Indigenous way and Western way.” Through building relationships with Indigenous communities, having open conversations about community needs and having culturally appropriate resources that reflect those needs, we can engage more families in developing early literacy skills with their little ones. 

Ways to support Indigenous families and children to build early literacy skills:

Read
  • Have story time each night before bed
  • Point out everyday words on signs, at shops, on labels
  • Read comics or other sections of a newspaper or magazine together.

Yarn
  • Share stories orally
  • Talk about features of a particular animal, plant or place
  • Talk about the letter bub’s name starts with and find other things that start with that letter.

Sing
  • Sing “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes” while getting dressed in first language or in English
  • While singing and rhyming, ask your child to move along to actions or use tap sticks as you sing
  • Make animal sounds e.g. laugh like a Kookaburra 
  • Play word matching to figure out words that rhyme with basic English words like “hop” or Aboriginal language words like “koort” in Noongar.

Draw
  • Draw and tell sand stories
  • Weave to help build up little finger muscles
  • Make marks and scribbles in the air, on paper or in sand.

Play
  • Act out stories
  • Move like animals that your child talks about
  • Play “Follow the Leader” using actions from your child’s favourite story.