20 May 2022
Vision
Hearing

National Simultaneous Storytime

Early Intervention—hearing

From birth onwards, we help to build foundations for learning and critical life skills to give your child the confidence to explore the world around them.

A preschool boy with cochlear implant with his teacher

The Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) has been running their national reading activity for the past 22 years to promote reading and literacy across Australia.
Every year a picture book, written and illustrated by an Australian author and illustrator, is read simultaneously in libraries, schools, preschools, childcare centres, family homes, bookshops, and many other places around the country, including NextSense.

This year, the book is Family Tree written by Josh Pyke and illustrated by Ronojoy Ghosh.

Family Tree book cover for National Simultaneous Storytime

'Participating in National Simultaneous Storytime (NSS) is always a special time of the year. It’s a great event because it promotes the value of reading and literacy for children. It also showcases how fun books can be and the joy of experiencing and enjoying books with others,' says Andja Curcic, Speech Pathologist from our Western Sydney region.

To support NSS, our NextSense Early Intervention team has developed a range of video resources for those children and families at home.

In addition to a read-through of the book translated into various languages, accompanying video activities have been developed to support children’s understanding of the themes and concepts within the book, as well as making the book even more fun!

'We have created a combined song/yoga activity that relates to the story. The yoga seed activity mimics the growing of the tree in the story and showcases the life cycle of a tree, expanding on themes throughout the book. The craft activity is a way for the children to connect their own family tree to the lives within the family tree book,' says Andja Curcic.

Family Tree videos

Early Intervention—vision

For children who are blind or have low vision, tailored opportunities for early learning build confidence and set the foundations for higher learning and critical life skills.