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About smalltalk

smalltalk aims to increase parents’ confidence to do the things we know can have a positive impact on their child’s learning. It’s about using everyday opportunities and activities that many parents already do in the home to enhance their children’s learning and development.

These include the way parents talk, listen, and play with their children, engage them in interesting and stimulating activities and read together.

smalltalk website
About this program

A national and global reach

We developed, tested and rolled out smalltalk across Victoria. Following its success in Victoria, it is now available across Australia and internationally.

Working in collaboration with practitioners and parents, our team has designed a highly accepted, appealing and effective program. A feature of smalltalk is that it fits seamlessly within facilitated playgroups, making it accessible and available to all families, with a special focus on those who experience some level of disadvantage.

Our role

We assess impact and strengthen the program

We know it is effective because our team of researchers tested smalltalk as part of the Early Home Learning Study (funded by the Victorian Government) between 2009 and 2012.

As part of this 3-year, randomised controlled study with over 2200 parents and their pre-school children, we found that parents who participated in a smalltalk-enhanced playgroup (versus a standard playgroup) were:

  • more verbally responsive to their children
  • were more engaged with more activities with their child in their homes
  • provided a richer home literacy environment
  • allowed their children to take the lead in activities
  • supported their children’s interest and attention in activities for longer
  • engaged in higher-quality parent-child interactions.
Our approach

Scaling up for further success

With the knowledge that smalltalk works and parents like it, we’ve continued to support its rollout across a wide range of services and locations, including internationally in Singapore, where it is being offered across the country.

So smalltalk is integrated successfully into new settings and services, we collaborate with agencies and governments using a proven framework and evidence-based support strategies. Our support includes helping clients assess their readiness, training practitioners, and providing ongoing post-training support to embed the program into daily practice.

And, with the goal of ensuring ongoing effectiveness of smalltalk, we are currently working on a continuous practice improvement system to ensure that what we develop, evaluate, adapt and implement continues to achieve its intended outcomes and has an impact for the children and their families.

Want to know more about smalltalk?

Interested in smalltalk for your setting? We can help you support children’s learning, cognitive development and school readiness. Contact us about this program today.

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