Singapore – Despite early childhood experiences being crucial to the child’s long-term cognitive, social and emotional development, there are still many misconceptions about children’s development in the early years. In retrospect with this current mindset, upstream organisation KidSTART has launched its newest public initiative to highlight the significance of a child’s early years by inviting Singaporeans to reflect on their own early childhood experiences.
The new public initiative, called “A Good Start”, hopes that it will bring out a newfound understanding of the lasting impact the first few years can have on children’s lives and will inspire Singaporeans to take action in supporting children’s holistic development during the preschool ages. Such support is especially critical for children in lower income families.
As part of the campaign initiative, a three-part video series will be released on KidSTART’s social media pages to demonstrate the lasting impact of a parent’s active involvement in their child’s early years. Titled “A Good Start: Heart-to-Heart”, the video series will feature notable parenting influencers as well as KidSTART beneficiaries in intimate conversations alongside their family members about their early childhood years.
In addition, to extend the conversation around the long-term influence of one’s early years, the initiative will also invite Singaporeans from all walks of life to share their personal reflections and experiences of what their parents did in early years that had a lasting impact on them under the hashtag #ThankYouForAGoodStart.
For Rahayu Buang, chief executive officer at KidSTART, they hope that this campaign encourages families across all walks of life to meaningfully connect and engage with their young children, so as to build a strong foundation and provide them with a good start in life.
“At KidSTART, we believe that parents are a child’s first teachers, and what they do for their young children in their early years will greatly impact their holistic development in the long term. As illustrated through the stories shared in A Good Start initiative, small and intentional everyday parent-child interactions such as family meals or bedtime stories will result in significant, lifelong positive outcomes,” Buang said.
