Developmental Playgroup Term 1 2017 Enrolments Open

Tiny Sparks WA  is pleased to open enrolments for our 'Developmental Play Group' for Term 1, 2017.

WhoChildren 8 months to 36 months

When: Wednesdays 10:15 am - 11:45 am

Dates: 1st Feb, 15th Feb, 1st Mar, 15th Mar, 29th Mar

Cost: $45 per term

WhatPhysiotherapy, Speech Pathology and Occupational Therapy visiting at every session on a rotational basis. An opportunity for children to be monitored within a small group setting and for parents who have experienced similar journeys to meet in a safe environment with a strict wellness policies.

Click here for the enrolment form to applyPlaces are limited to 12. Acceptance of enrolment is first in first served.

Term 4 Developmental Playgroup - Enrolments now open

Tiny Sparks WA  is pleased to open enrolments for our 'Developmental Play Group' in Term 4, 2016.

WhoChildren 8 months to 36 months

When: Wednesdays 10:15 am - 11:45 am

Dates: 26th Oct, 2nd Nov, 16th Nov, 30th Nov, 14th Dec
(Note the term starts in week 3 rather than week 2 as Meerilinga has an open day on Wednesday week 2)

Cost: $45 per term

WhatPhysiotherapy, Speech Pathology and Occupational Therapy visiting at every session on a rotational basis. An opportunity for children to be monitored within a small group setting and for parents who have experienced similar journeys to meet in a safe environment with strict wellness policies.

Places are limited to 12. Acceptance of enrolment is first in first served.

Update: Enrolments are now closed.

Developmental Assessments - the how, the what, the why

We are pleased to announce our April 2015 workshop will be presented by Dr Catherine Campbell, Clinical Psychologist. Dr Campbell is experienced at conducting developmental assessments of infants that fall under the follow-up program at King Edward Memorial Hospital.  As an interesting side note, she also works with the Australian Men's Hockey Program!

In this workshop, Dr Campbell will help you understand the how, the what and the why of developmental assessments. There will be the opportunity for you to ask questions, although please note this is not an individual consultation session. 

The King Edward Memorial Neonatology Clinical Care Unit provides developmental follow-up for babies who have problems after birth. These may include:

  • Preterm birth (before 32 weeks gestation)
  • Birth-weight less than 1500 grams
  • Major surgery in the neonatal period
  • Seizures or fits
  • Very poor condition at birth
  • Serious illnesses such as meningitis

The program monitors your baby’s progress through early life and provides expert advice and intervention where appropriate. Your baby needs follow-up at regular intervals:

  • Soon after discharge
  • At four months
  • At eight months
  • At 12 months for a detailed developmental assessment (Griffith’s Test)
  • Some babies may be recommended for longer-term follow-up. 

The workshop will be held in Subiaco at the Tom Dadour Centre on Tuesday the 14th of April 2015 at 7pm.  It is open to all families affected by high-risk pregnancy, premature birth or having a sick newborn.  To register for this workshop please visit the registration page.



Look at me now!

We are delighted to present you with a number of images taken for our 'Look at me now!' campaign.  This initiative is designed to provide a high impact, emotive image which shows in a very straightforward manner just how far the children have come since their stay in NICU/SCN.

These little super stars will be on display at most of our public events, their images will also be used on our website and in marketing materials.  A huge thank you to each of the families who participated.

Click to enlarge the images.

Mia born 23 weeks 4 days, 645g.  Came home on oxygen but is now a in pre-primary and thriving.

Twins Logan and Blake born at 26 weeks 2 days weighing 1070g and 945g.

Harley born 33 weeks, 1810g due to PE.

Hayley born 24 weeks 5 days, weighing 740g now a very happy kindy kid.

Aaleyah born 33 weeks 5 days, 2170g due to PE.

Aurora born 31 weeks 1 day, weighing 1410g due to HELLP syndrome.

Hayward born 27 weeks, 870g due to pre-eclampsia.

Mark born at term with stage 2-3 HIE, meconium aspiration and seizures.

Dakota born 32 weeks, 1700g, required full resuscitation at birth.

Noah born at term with a complete heart block requiring admission to NICU and fitting of a pacemaker.


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Toddler Tuesdays - Week 9 of the 12 weeks of winter

Welcome to week 9 of β€˜Toddler Tuesdays’.  You can find more of our β€˜Toddler Tuesdays’ activities here, we hope you are enjoying them.  This week’s activity is based on the children’s rhyme 5 little speckled frogs, however we will only be using 3.  If you are not familiar with the rhyme the words are -

3 little speckled frogs

sat on a speckled log

eating some most delicious bugs

yum, yum.

One jumped into the pool

where it was nice and cool

now there are 2 more speckled frogs

glub, glub.

Each time through the song 1 more frog jumps into the pond until there are no more speckled frogs.

You will need -

  1. 3 popsticks or straws.
  2. Sticky tape.
  3. A copy of our free printable frogs and log which can be found here.  You will need to cut out these items.
  4. Crayons.
  5. A large piece of paper, A3, scrapbook page or newspaper.
  6. Glue stick

Instructions -

Set out all of the items at the kitchen table or toddler table ready for your child.  Assist your child to stick a pop stick or straw to the back of each of the frogs so that they can jump off the log and into the pond.  Assist your child to glue the log across the mid section of their page.  Encourage your child to β€˜colour’ a pond at the bottom of the page.  Use appropriate key word phrases to encourage your child along the way.  Once completed sing the rhyme through with your child and encourage them to have their frogs also jump into the pond.

Focus -

This activity promotes fine motor skills and is a great opportunity for language development.  You may use key phrases like, β€˜stick it’, β€˜turn over’, β€˜green frogβ€˜.  Remember that even when your child isn’t responding to your comments you are imprinting that language and correct grammar on their brain for retrieval when they developmentally get to that stage.  If your child is already using some of those key words themselves then add an additional word to your phrase like, β€˜big brown log’.  This rhyme is a great opportunity to introduce counting, 1, 2, 3.  It’s also a fun and happy rhyme so you might encourage discussion about the frogs being happy that they are now in the nice cool pool.

If you try out one of our activities please let us know what your toddler (and you) thought.  Feel free to leave a comment here or post an image or comment to our Facebook page.  If you enjoy the activity we would encourage you to share this post with your friends.


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