Abstract
There is urgent need to redress Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander child health and development inequalities. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander child development is confounded by multiple factors, including underlying trauma from colonisation, dispossession, and instability related to cultural and socioemotional learning during the first 2000 days. A growing body of evidence, not yet tested with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, shows that fundamental movement skills (FMS) combined with socioemotional learning (SEL) incorporated into the Move2Smile program, builds learning capabilities and improves child development outcomes, to better prepare children for a meaningful life. Our project highlights the importance of co-design with community before community-controlled implementation and evaluation with an example of how the Move2Smile with Culture program was co-conceptualised in partnership with the Yarrabah Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community in Australia. Our new program, Move2 Smile with Culture will centre around a movement-based program embedded with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ways of knowing, being and doing which will promote the cultural reflections of the curriculum. The key objective of this study is to explore co-designing the Move2Smile with Culture program through embedding Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ways of knowing, being, and doing using inclusive early learning practices.
Presenters
Keane WheelerLecturer, School of Human Movement and Nutrition Sciences, University of Queensland, Queensland, Australia
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
Sporting Cultures and Identities
KEYWORDS
Child development Indigenous health Physical activity Mental health
