Let's talk about what's in the hub and why it might be worth considering. So as I was talking about earlier, um, back in 20 17, 20 16, 20 17, we started to outline our foundations for raising happy, healthy kids. And I started running some. Uh, intensive programs and camps for kids with developmental delays and disabilities.
And we started initially running like half hour sessions every day for five days and then full day sessions, and then eventually moved to overnight sessions for the whole family. And the reason that we started to bring the whole family along was because I wanted to get, uh, a bit of an understanding of what it looked like when we could control.
Some of the variables. So we could have some real structure in there around the digital detox and the quality sleep and um, the types of foods that we're eating. 'cause the first three, three days, when you're making a change as a family, uh, is the hardest, particularly if the kids are detoxing from technology or if they're getting their sleep back in a, a sort of regular cycle.
Or if they're struggling with sort of food, um, addictions, particularly from chemicals that might be causing, um, particular addictions. So those first few days in particular can be really hard. For the kids, but also for the adults that are supporting the kids. And so we had some really amazing success and some great outcomes when we brought the whole family together.
And we did that process together over sort of three or four days anyway, fast forward a few years and COVID hits, and we had to cancel all of those programs for almost two years. And the families that we were. Had been supporting on the ground, they couldn't obviously have the routine that their kids were used to.
They weren't able to go to school, and we needed to help set some structures up and get some structures in place. And so we started sending therapy programs out to these kids in the mail and putting, um. A series of resources and some videos for them and a bit of a timetable for how to structure their time.
Because we know that kids, or all of us, we are hardwired as creatures of habit to have that routine every day, it makes it so much easier for our brain to make choices when there's consistency and predictability and we know what's happening next. So setting up those, um, those structures and those routines will really.
Um, important and valuable for families during the uncertainty of COVID. What we didn't expect is how successful that model would be of providing the resources along with the video so the kids could be self-directed in their learning. 'cause obviously many of the parents were still working during that time, but what we saw was this coming together and this connection for the family.
So, um. It might have been something as simple as a cake mix, and the kids are needing a little bit of help to navigate the oven and, and read the instructions. And so everyone coming into the kitchen and making that cake together, there was excitement from the siblings. It was obviously, um, uh, the, the, the parent being present in the space to, to engage in an activity that potentially they otherwise wouldn't have engaged in.
And then. Um, these kids exposed to activities and, and things like eating something new, which was, uh, a, a real novelty for many of them. So there was this, these layers of unexpected outcomes and benefits that came from rolling out, um, these programs during COVID. And when COVID finished, we decided to sort of keep them out there to see sort of what impact they could have in the world.
Fast forward five years to today, and we've got 36 programs now sitting in our hub that we've been refining over the last five years. To, they started off as things that were just super practical to support us during COVID. Things like cooking and gardening and creative activities like art and craft sort of style things.
And then over time we built them out to be more fit for purpose for the kinds of challenges that a families are most often experiencing and trying to make it more. Make those serious topics like sleep and feeding and, um, routines and self-care, trying to make them a little bit more fun and a little bit more engaging for the kids.
Because as you know, when you're trying to initiate a change, like help kids become more independent with self-care, then they often feel like you're nagging at them and, um, they're less motivated to do it. But when you introduce someone else into the picture that can sort, sort of support the rollout. So whether it's, um, a series of videos that they're watching and then copying, we know how much kids love watching YouTube videos and then copying what they're seeing on the YouTube, whether it's just something as simple as using some, some board maker visuals to um, know what needs to happen next, whether it is having an extra set of hands come in and then.
Help you roll out that, that routine, whether it's an aunt or a grandparent or um, some sort of support person coming into your home to assist you with those routines. Or whether it's just a novelty of pulling out a pile of resources and saying, Hey, let's check this out together. And involving the kids themselves in the process of how do you wanna do this?
What order do you wanna do it in? What do you think you'd like to like this to look like? And giving them more sort of agency and control over. Over their own routines. All of those sort of little things can, can lead to really successful outcomes compared to if we just came in and it's our idea and we we're sort of nagging at them to, to make these changes.
So, um, we started to put together topics, like I said, like sleep feeding, routines, meal times, and self care. Um. We were able to practice rolling out those with six and a half thousand families through our therapy at home programs over the course of five years. And during that time we continued to refine our products, started making our own products, and we also were able to, um, test what worked well with the families and what, um.
What we needed to shift, what was engaging, what was boring, and, uh, and, and just continue to make that a, a more simplified but also, uh, fun and enjoyable experience for everybody. So each of the 36 programs can come with a toolbox that gets delivered to your door to support the rollout of these programs in, in your home.
Um, we extended it to look at things like. STEM programs for, um, sort of 10-year-old boys that look at executive functioning skills and, um, find motor skills and sort of things that, that they might've been having trouble, but doing it through mo things that are motivating and through play because we know we all learn best when we're motivated.
We all learn best when we're playing. So take something like, you know, hundreds of repetitions of something to form neural pathways if we are. We're just learning something from looking or watching, but when we are learning something from through doing and when it's motivating and it's playful, then we can learn it as in as little as like seven.
Um. Seven exposures, and that's really the basis for the, the evidence. And oh, there's a whole series of evidence depending on, um, the, the background of the activities that we're rolling out. So we use our psychologists, our speech, our OTs, to develop all of these programs along with our educators who are great at breaking these tasks down into, um.
Into bite-sized chunks to, to help one, educate the parent, but also two, to make it fun and engaging and and flexible to the level of the needs of the child. And so when you jump in these programs and you can see, um, you can jump to the bit that's just relevant to you. You've got the facilitator guides, they're with all of the why.
It's got the evidence, the backstory, the reasons developmentally why these things matter, and the order in which you should do them on all of that sort of background info. Or you can stump jump straight into the practice. Practicalities of how do we roll this out in a really fun and engaging way in our house.
So there's different, um, hand different handwriting topics, ready for school topics, fine motor, gross motor skills. Um, all of the most common challenges I guess that we're seeing. There's things on there around yoga and breathing and regulation and understanding our sensory systems and how they work, uh, programs to support our own regulation as adults and how.
We understand our own nervous system and can support that as well as hundreds of downloadable tools, whether it's a journal to track your sleep for a week or for the kids to track their sleep for, for up to three weeks. Um, there's journals in there about understanding, um, where, how, how to make our bodies feel.
They're best and optimize our routines throughout the day is to build in independence for our kids around morning and evening routines. Um, but that they're in the driver's seat of choosing what the routines are gonna look like and being able to notice how their body feels when they're rolling those out.
Same for understanding and labeling emotions. Oftentimes when we have kids that have got big emotions, one of the first challenges we have to recognize is that they potentially don't know the words or the labels or how to recognize these emotions in themselves or others. And so taking that step back and doing some coloring in activities and um, and playing some card games and some bingo games around understanding emotions is sort of the first step.
So, um. If you're a homeschooling family, there's so many great resources that can be used to guide, um. To guide your day. There's lesson plans that go, that cover off specific topics like for example, uh, regulation or emotional literacy or, uh, literacy. And, uh, even if with our STEM programs and our 3D. Pen programs is lesson plans that'll carry you right through a whole term of 10 sessions, or that you can split them up and, and carry you through a whole year if you're doing a little bit of repetition of some of those activities and, and adding some elements where the kids have some creative choice and freedom as well, and you're using the workbooks as the guides to support you through it.
So a, a huge amount of depth to the resources that are in there. Some of them definitely require specific tools like the 3D print pen program, for example. You absolutely need. The 3D print pen to do that program. Doesn't need to be our 3D print pen. It can be anyone. I think Big W sell them these days. Um.
Whereas there's other programs there like sleep and feeding, that you don't need any tools. You'll already have the tools floating around your house. Even for many of our cooking programs, you'll already have all of the things you need or in, in your home and you're just really downloading, um, the recipes if you want to, the visual supports if you want to or if you need them, or you can just press play on the videos and the kids can, can largely guide themselves through, through some of those activities.
So, um. I, I think that for families that are either really invested in understanding the why and being able to do that, that level of problem solving and um, and, and really sitting with how the brain develops, how the body develops and what sort of are the stepping stones. On a developmental sort of progression, it, it can be really helping, helpful and then for you identifying, okay, now we do this, and then we need to do this, and then we need to do this.
And so for example, when it comes to sort of supporting kids that might have delays in their speech and language skills or in their gross motor skills, knowing that. Okay. First my kid needs to be able to jump and then need to be able to hop before we're gonna be able to skip. And then what are the ways that we can encourage those behaviors?
So it can, it, it can be sort of as simple as giving you that kind of guidance or for those of you that are wanting to give you kids a little bit more autonomy and control and, and then it can be as simple as setting them up with a bit of a playlist of, we're gonna work on this program, these holidays and.
They might be a child that needs a bit of structure so they can use the the holiday planning. Workbook to map out how they wanna structure their days throughout the holidays and to be able to identify, these are the activities that I'm gonna do, and they're all there and they can just literally press play on this video and then play on the next video and play on the next video.
And we will guide them through that process. And there's less than. Pressure on you to be the person that's constantly providing the, the, the prompting and the feedback and the, the keeping them engaged. So lots of different ways for you to use it. Like I said, hundreds of downloadable resources there. So more often than not, you don't need any external tools at the start of each of the program.
That is a. So that you know whether you can, um, execute the program without tools or whether you need, need to be a bit more organized. So you've got that sort of information in the preview section at the start of each of the modules. Um, and obviously you can jump in and use the chat to ask any questions, get some support from our Allied health professionals and educators in real time, and we, we do try to make sure that we respond to that.
Um. Like within one business day, or if it's across the weekend, obviously, uh, you need to allow a little bit more time, but to, we we're really engaging in that chat feature. But then also we've got the live weekly, um, trainings as well that are available to those of you that are wanna get in and, and sort of be really proactive in finding out more about specific to topics that might be, uh, challenging you or challenging your child at any given time.
None of that's compulsory. You can really have it there just to tap into. These downloadable resources or, um, or, or that extra sort of layer of guidance as you need it as well. So if you've got any questions, please reach out. We are really excited to roll out this as a pilot program. We're working with, uh, a Victorian state government funded accelerator program to ensure.
It really is fit for purpose, but it's also growing with the needs of the families that we're working with and how we can start to add more of those self-assessment tools onto this. The outcome measures that we want to be able to ensure that it's making a real difference for the families that we're supporting.
And also then looking at, um, how we can add some gamification and, uh, and some AI and, uh, some more. Wellness focused and, and data measures in the future to make this a really helpful tool in supporting you to support the health and wellbeing of your entire family. And, um, and keeping that really. Simple, targeted and, and really practical support.
So thanks for, um, yeah, finding out more about what it is that we're doing. We'd really appreciate and, uh, and love any ideas or feedback that you wanna share. And if you have any questions or need more information about anything, please do reach out. Otherwise, check out the hub and see if it's for you.
