Register your interest to participate in our research project
Our resources are almost ready to be tested. We are searching for parents & educators of children (2-8 years) from current or former serving ADF families to trial our research-informed resources. This page contains all the information you’ll need to help you decide if you want to take part in the project including what we’ll ask you to do, and if you will be eligible.
What’s is in it for me?
Being part of the evaluations will give you free, early access to:
- Research-based online resources that you can use online, at your own pace (see the topics here). These resource modules contain information, practical tips, expert advice and links to further supports. The resources have been designed with ADF families specifically in mind, supported by people with lived experience of defence family life.
- Nine eBooks, suitable for children aged 2-12 years, which support children’s understanding of what happens when parents work away (including deployments). These books are downloadable and printable. Each book has research-based information in the back for adults, exploring each theme. There are video read-along versions of most of these books and audio read-along for all of the books.
- Six of these eBooks are also in an interactive eBook mode, with early childhood educational activities and games to deepen and extend learning.
- Three eBooks for families who may have experienced service-related health and/or mental health conditions. These books are most suitable for children who experienced these issues in their families.
- Teaching activities and downloadable templates to create puppet and role-play activities, matching and sorting games, maths activities and puzzles, craft and art activities, songs, rhymes and raps, and extension activities to build children’s resilience and learning.
- Many downloadable and printable activity books that make learning practical and personalised.
You can have a peek at some of the resources at www.ecdefenceprograms.com/resources
What will I be asked to do?
If you agree to participate in our research project, you will be required to:
- Complete online surveys (one before you have access to the resources, and one after). Each survey will take approximately 30 minutes to complete and will ask you about your connection to a defence family. You will be asked to evaluate the quality and suitability of the resources you have accessed, and share how you’ve used the resources.
- Engage with some of the resource modules within a 12 week period. You only need to engage with the modules you are interested in or those which are suitable for your child/situation.
- Agree not to share the resources with other people except your own children or the children you work with. We will let you know when once the research project has finished and the resources are available for public access.
- Provide some feedback on the resources you engaged with via online forms which will take approximately 5 minutes of your time.
At the end of the trial, you can continue to enjoy having access to the resources at no cost.
Eligibility
We are looking for participants who are:
- A civilian parent, guardian or carer of a child aged 2-8 years who have a parent currently serving (or previously served) in the Australian Defence Force* Participants may be situated in Australia or overseas. Carers may include extended family members such as grandparents, or nannies who support the children in the home.
- Early childhood educators working in a service, or working privately, who support children aged 2-5 years from defence families. This includes REDLOs and DSMs working in schools with younger children.
- Family workers or social workers who support defence families with children aged 2-8 years of age, including workers who support veterans with children
*Note regarding dual-serving military families and single-parent military families:
People who are current serving members of the Australian Defence Force are ineligible for this project. This means if you are a dual military family (both parents currently serving in the defence forces), or a single-parent defence family, you are unfortunately not eligible to be part of this initial trial owing to ethical clearance. We would encourage you to register your interest below so we can contact you for future evaluations with current-serving parents. In the meantime, if you have a civilian carer, nanny or extended family member (e.g. grandparent) who regularly cares for the children, you may wish to invite them to participate.
What happens after the evaluations?
This evaluation phase will last about 18 months. After the evaluations are finished, we will improve the programs and resources based on your feedback, and then release them to the public late in 2022 or early in 2023.
Please fill in the form to register your interest in test driving our new resources. We will only contact those who are eligible to evaluate the resources.
The ethical aspects of this research project have been approved by the University of New England Human Research Ethics Committee, Approval Number HE21-027.
Questions
If you have questions about the project or would like more information, please contact the Chief Investigator Dr Marg Rogers- ecdefenceprograms@une.edu.au