Why do awareness campaigns about early brain development raise understanding, but not always public and political will to support children? This report from ARACY and The Frameworks Institute looks at the deeper, often unconscious beliefs Australians hold about children, parenting and families, and how naming those beliefs can change the way we communicate.

“Australians may nod their heads at the idea that ‘it takes a village’, but when pressed, most don’t see what needs to be done to more fully support children.”
— Nate Kendall-Taylor, CEO, The Frameworks Institute

At a glance

  • Australians hold long-standing, often unconscious beliefs about children, parenting and families. These beliefs shape how much support the community and our systems give to children.
  • Awareness campaigns about early childhood have worked. Knowing the facts about brain development hasn’t, on its own, built stronger public and political support for children.
  • Naming these beliefs, and framing our communication with them in mind, can build the will to support every child to thrive.

What’s inside

The report explains what mental models are, how they operate below conscious awareness, and why two conflicting models, “it takes a village to raise a child” and “families should be responsible for their own children”, can both sit in the same person’s mind and get triggered by different messages. It sets out strategies for using framing deliberately in communications, so that the models triggered are the ones that build support for children rather than undermine it.

Read more below

A note for readers

This report discusses harmful racist mental models, including those relating to First Nations Australians, in the context of identifying and working to reduce them. ARACY acknowledges the enduring harm done to First Nations peoples by colonisation and ongoing structural racism in Australia.