|
|
| Supporting nutrition for Australian child care
|
|
|
|
This article was provided by Karen Lombard a PhD student from Edith Cowan University working on the SNAC resource for early childhood education and care providers.
Early childhood is an important time for growth, and nutrition in particular plays an essential role in a child's physical, social and emotional development, contributing significantly to good health as an adult. The importance of early year's services in contributing to children's health and well-being should not be underestimated. As more than 1 million Australian children now attend some form of childcare, the provision of nutritious foods, as well as learning and developing healthy food habits happens here, and this knowledge will persist into adulthood.
The most significant current health issue for Australian children is overweight and obesity. The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare reported that 23% of children aged 2-4 years of age were found to be overweight or obese. In fact, boys aged 5-7 have the highest obesity rate (9%) of all of the children's age groups measured in 2011-2012. Being overweight or obese during childhood can increase a person's risk of developing chronic diseases such as Type 2 diabetes, and of being overweight or obese in adulthood.
Considering that on average a child will spend 27 hours a week at an early years' service, it is essential that the food provided is nutritious and a healthy eating environment is promoted. This is also an ideal setting from which to communicate with families about these important issues.
Providing nutritious food and promoting a healthy eating environment is not always an easy task for early years educators. Early years directors, food coordinators and educators report that although it is important to them to be able to provide nutritious food, they sometimes lack the skills or knowledge to do so. The need for more training and better support for educators led to the development of the SNAC website, launched in August 2013.
The SNAC website provides reliable and accurate nutrition specific resources together with online activities. These are designed to teach educators about basic nutrition concepts to increase their confidence to share this knowledge with children, and to discuss them with parents. Many resources, across a wide range of topics are provided, including dealing with fussy eating, allergies and food label reading, as well as many, many more. There are also links to other key organisations such as Child Australia, Nutrition Australia and the Heart Foundation, and a range of discussion boards, providing the ‘information wrapped in support' required by educators.
Currently there are more than 1200 members registered on the SNAC website and educators are accessing the community forums, the activities and support, reporting that they are a valued resource. To ensure the SNAC website continues to grow and develop, funding was granted by Healthway to allow for the development of a “snap on” project called SNACPlus.
SNACPlus provides nutrition specific curriculum resources to support nutrition education for children aged 3-4 years, and has been piloted in Western Australian child care centres. The curriculum is linked to the Early Years Learning Framework, as well as the National Quality Standards. Each activity provides professional development resources for educators, tips for teaching such as "cooking with children" and material to send home to parents. These resources are freely available for educators to access and to download as PDFs. SNAC members can use their existing log in details to access the new resources, and new members are encouraged to register here
Whilst this is a research project, and members are required to provide some personal information at registration, it is monitored by ECU's Ethics Committee, ensuring confidentiality at all times. Members can even choose a 'user name' that does not reveal their true identity if preferred.
Once registered, members have access to the existing SNAC resources which have been found so valuable by current members, as well as the newly developed modules for educators.
New modules for educators include:
- From little things big things grow – Food and drink sources
- My healthy choice – Food and drink choices
- What is body image?
- Talking about food and health – Body image
- Talk matters – Body image
- Professional development – including videos, links to web resources and great fact sheets
A valuable professional network and community of practice within the early year's industry has been developed on the SNAC website, and new members are encouraged to join to further develop and grow this community. Feedback is also extremely valuable to the research team, and members are encouraged to provide their feedback. For example, if a particular resource is required that is not already on the website, please let the SNAC team know, and we will endeavour to find something to meet these requirements.
As well as materials for educators, SNACplus has an area for parents, a new addition to the SNAC website. Parents' materials include activities for children and parents to do at home, to extend the learning happening at your early years' service. There is also a forum for parents to communicate with one another, and with the research team, in the same way we encourage educators to.
As part of the launch of our new activities, this month we are running a competition for educators. Winners will receive a great nutrition resource.
To take part, you need to:
- Register as a SNAC user HERE
- Complete our short survey HERE
- Use the educator modules HERE
|
|
|
|
|
