Professor Chong Yap Seng, Dean of the NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine,
Professor Nick Sevdalis, Executive Director, Centre for Holistic Initiatives for Learning and
Development,
Distinguished guests,
Ladies and gentlemen
- We are all united here today because we are committed to ensuring that we do the best for our young children in Singapore and ensuring that they have a good start in life. This is the second edition of the CHILD conference and this is also the second time that I am joining the CHILD conference. CHILD continues the important work of transforming research into actionable practices to better support our children’s development.
- This year’s conference theme emphasises the crucial connection between research, policy and practice in shaping the future of early childhood. It is not just about research, it is also about implementation and execution. Therefore, it is important that we have early childhood practitioners and policymakers coming together to discuss how we can implement research insights into real-life practices to drive positive outcomes for our children and their families.
Importance of Evidence and Data
- In Singapore, we rely on robust data to inform our decisions and ensure that our initiatives are grounded in evidence-based practices. Consequently, this allows us to identify the needs of our children and their families accurately and develop targeted interventions. To that end, policymakers and practitioners look to researchers to do what they do best. We look to them for the relevant data and insights, which can be translated into actionable policies and programmes.
- I have constantly referred to the Growing Up in Singapore Towards Healthy Outcomes study, or GUSTO, whenever I talk about early childhood and children’s development, because it is a landmark longitudinal study that has provided much valuable data and insights to policymakers, practitioners and researchers. This comprehensive study was launched in 2009 and it has helped us to better understand how a mother’s mental health during pregnancy as well as a child’s early years and lifestyle habits can affect the child’s development.
- Earlier, Professor Chong reminded us that many of the initiatives that were launched as part of Grow Well SG actually have their origins in research, such as the research of GUSTO that was published as early as 2021. Grow Well SG is a new national health promotion strategy and it aims to foster healthier lifestyles in children and adolescents. It includes updated guidelines on screen use, individual health plans for each child and enhanced support to schools to complement their current efforts to identify health needs and interventions required for their students.
- GUSTO findings highlight that the key to a child’s holistic development is their overall health and well-being. In Singapore, parents often focus on children's academic readiness for Primary 1, such as their reading and numeracy skills. Sometimes, we forget basic principles which show that well-rested and healthy children are better prepared to succeed. GUSTO findings remind us of these fundamentals that we should be cognisant of and practise in our everyday life. Good sleep, proper nutrition, and meaningful screen-free interactions lay a strong foundation for children to thrive in school and beyond. By translating findings from GUSTO into practical policies, we are taking concrete steps to improve children’s outcomes.
Effective Implementation of Evidence-based Practices
- While understanding research evidence and insights is important, we must also tailor our approach and practices to effectively meet the needs of our children and families.
- Another example is the KidSTART programme. The main reason why we have this programme is to ensure that children from 0 to 6 years old, especially those from lower-income families, have a good start in life. When implementing KidSTART on the ground, we are focused on empowering and equipping lower-income parents with skills to better support their children’s development.
- When this programme was rolled out in 2016, the service model then comprised home visitations, playgroups and support to preschools. This model was grounded on research and evidence-based practices. As we progressively rolled out KidSTART, which is now a nationwide programme, we felt that there was a need to stocktake to find out what was working and what was perhaps not working as well for KidSTART.
- We approached researchers to evaluate the programme to see how we could refine the service model to better support children and families. Findings from the evaluation found that home visitation was particularly effective in supporting parenting and improving child outcomes. When compared to the other components of the programme, the playgroup sessions did not show significant improvements to the degree we saw for home visitations. However, through our qualitative interviews, we uncovered important benefits that these playgroups facilitate. Families who attended these playgroup sessions with their children, made friends with other KidSTART families and understood ways to better communicate with their children through the conversations with one another. In doing so, they also formed community bonds which were important to these families.
- After considering findings from the evaluation of the programme on how we can better implement the KidSTART service model, we made the decision to focus on home visitation as the core component of KidSTART as they were found to be the most effective programme component. We have discontinued the playgroup sessions and we are pivoting to leveraging community events to promote that social connectedness which the qualitative interviews had shown us that parents valued. This is a clear example of how we are contextualising evidence-based practices to meet the specific needs of our local children and families.
Whole-of-Society Effort in Supporting Children’s Holistic Development
- Lastly, to support the holistic development of children, it is important that we adopt a whole-of-society approach. We can only do our work well when we work with community stakeholders and more importantly, when we work effectively with parents. It is critical to have parents’ buy-in as they are often our children’s first role models. Hence, it is important that we try to involve families in the execution and implementation of programmes.
- The “Learning To Support Play”, or LET’S Play, is a great example of this. CHILD partnered with Temasek Foundation and Suncare SG, a charity supporting the well-being of children and youths, to pilot LET’S Play. This initiative aims to enhance grandparents’ sensitive interactions with children up to 3-years-old during play, helping to build strong emotional bonds for children’s holistic growth. CHILD will be sharing findings on the initial feasibility of this programme in one of the concurrent sessions later.
- Our children’s development is shaped by many factors such as their home environment, education and experiences. We will have to leverage on the collective efforts of multiple stakeholders to create an ecosystem where children receive support to develop holistically and thrive. Platforms like the CHILD Conference are important because they facilitate the exchange of insights amongst researchers, policymakers and practitioners.
- With that, I would like to wish all of you a fruitful conference ahead and hope that you use this opportunity to make even more meaningful connections, brainstorm and see how we can work more effectively together to ensure that all of our children will have a good start in life. Thank you very much.