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Non-maternal carers (allomothers) are hypothesized to lighten the mother's workload, allowing for the specialized human life history including relatively short interbirth intervals and multiple dependent offspring. Here, using in-depth observational data on childcare provided to 78 Agta children (a foraging population in the northern Philippines; aged 0–6 years), we explore whether allomaternal childcare substitutes and decreases maternal childcare. We found that allomother caregiving was associated with reduced maternal childcare, but the substitutive effect varied depending on the source and type of care. Children-only playgroups consistently predicted a decrease in maternal childcare. While grandmothers were rarely available, their presence was negatively associated with maternal presence and childcare, and grandmothers performed similar childcare activities to mothers. These results underscore the importance of allomothering in reducing maternal childcare in the Agta. Our findings suggest that flexibility in childcare sources, including children-only playgroups, may have been the key to human life-history evolution. Overall, our results reinforce the necessity of a broad conceptualization of social support in human childcare. This article is part of the theme issue 'Multidisciplinary perspectives on social support and maternal–child health'.

Advocates for playful nature-based learning espouse the benefits of children’s self-directed play; however, past research has questioned whether this form of activity is beneficial to children of all ages, particularly the very young. In Australia, there are rapidly growing numbers of nature playgroups and bush kindergartens in which young children’s self-directed play-based learning is promoted. Bush kinders, as they are known in Australia, are a local adaptation of the European forest kindergarten approach, where three- and four-year-old children spend one day a week in outdoor contexts away from the kindergarten premises to learn and play. One further example of Australian nature-based approaches to Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) is the nature playgroup where forests, parklands, and beaches are used by parents to regularly meet so their children can socialise and play. Science learning is often prevalent in these nature playgroups where children observe the sky, ground, plants, and animals across changing seasons. The children can mix earth and water and move their bodies as they run, dance, and roll on the grass. Despite the popularity of nature-based ECEC approaches globally, Australian nature playgroups led by facilitators other than parents, aimed towards young children aged from birth to four, have only gained popularity in the past decade. This paper draws upon fieldwork informed by ethnographic methods and undertaken in 2024 at one nature playgroup. The observations of facilitators, parents, and children and the interactions between the researchers and the playgroup participants are described using vignettes to understand the experience of science learning during facilitated nature playgroup sessions. Through analysing research in ECEC nature-based science teaching and learning, we propose that facilitated playgroups are valuable for young children to interact with nature as an avenue to build science knowledge.

Despite widespread utilization, research exploring associations between playgroup and child development is scarce. We analyzed a national data set measuring the holistic development of children aged 4 to 6 years who commenced school in Australia in 2015 (n = 104,767), the Australian Early Development Census, to explore developmental differences between children who did and did not attend playgroup before school. Children who attended playgroup had better development at school entry relative to those who had not attended playgroup, after adjustment for a range of confounding factors. These differences were observed across all five developmental domains and were universal to children from a range of backgrounds. Results support the need for future research to explore the causal effects of playgroup on children's development. [Author abstract]

Supported playgroups are community-based services that provide low intensity family support, through regular group sessions for parents and their young children. Led by a playgroup facilitator, the program aims to enrich children’s early learning, enhance positive parenting behaviors, provide social connections for parents, and enable access to other community services. Despite high community acceptance and government investment, little is known about the extent to which such services are effective. This paper reports findings from a systematic review of research on supported playgroups and their effectiveness to improve child, parent, and community outcomes. Thirty-four studies were included, of which 28 were conducted in Australia. Programs targeted a diverse range of families who were considered socially disadvantaged. Seven studies employed experimental or quasi-experimental designs from which reliable evidence for effectiveness could be established. A high proportion of studies were qualitative and included action research, case studies, or ethnographies. A range of qualitative and quantitative measures were used to assess child, parent, and community outcomes. While findings suggested that supported playgroup programs were highly valued by parents and other stakeholders, rigorous evidence of effectiveness for achieving desired improvements in child outcomes or parenting behavior was rare and limited by low quality study designs. More explicit theories of change about how different types of supported playgroup programs can meet diverse family needs are required. Such theories of change would provide directions for specific content and delivery approaches that could address and improve different child and parent outcomes targeted to specific populations of attending families.

ObjectiveTherapeutic playgroups provide a unique service for children with developmental delays and disabilities and their families, delivering tailored play-based therapy while facilitating parent support and community connections. Despite the prevalence of playgroups within the disability sector there is a paucity of research defining the key principles of therapeutic playgroups and their perceived benefits. Taking the perspectives of early intervention professionals this study sought to provide a definition of therapeutic playgroups and identify the “active ingredients” of therapeutic playgroups for children with developmental delays and disabilities.MethodFocus group methodology was used to gather perspectives of 40 professionals with experience facilitating playgroups for children with developmental delays and/or disabilities and their families.ResultsFindings highlighted the complex nature of therapeutic playgroups which require an interplay of five “active ingredients” to be perceived as beneficial: facilitator and participant characteristics; playgroup structural characteristics, information provision, administration and logistical considerations.ConclusionTherapeutic playgroups have distinct practice principles that distinguish them from other playgroups and therapeutic models for children with delays and disabilities and their families. This paper provides a definition of therapeutic playgroups, outlining the core practice principles for therapeutic playgroups, an essential step in developing and evaluating the effectiveness of therapeutic playgroups.

Playgroups are widely used throughout the Australian community yet understanding of their efficacy is hindered by inconsistent playgroup definitions and practice principles. This study aimed to develop, implement and evaluate the feasibility of a manualised therapeutic playgroup for children with developmental delay and their families using a three step process. Step one, manual development, involved triangulating findings from playgroup literature and utilising a working group of professionals ( n  = 10) and caregivers ( n  = 2) to identify practice principles and inform the content of a manualised playgroup. Step two, conducted a feasibility study involving parents ( n  = 9) and children ( n  = 8); with findings informing step three, manual revisions, in preparation for larger-scale efficacy testing. Step one resulted in the development of an 8-week manualised playgroup for children with developmental delay. In step two, playgroup participants demonstrated improvements in family support and child performance, with playgroup reported as being beneficial by both parents and facilitators. This perceived benefit was attributed to parents’ shared experience, access to skilled facilitators, parent learning and child enjoyment. In step three these findings were incorporated, finalising the manual. In a context where playgroup research is limited by model variability and poorly defined practice principles, this is the first study to systematically develop, implement and pilot a manualised therapeutic playgroup intervention for children with developmental delay. It provides an evidence-based definition of playgroup principles, delivers sufficient assurance of playgroup feasibility to warrant a larger definitive trial, and outlines a process for developing and testing the feasibility of a manualised, complex intervention. Highlights Demonstrates the process of manualising and testing the feasibility of a complex intervention. Therapeutic playgroups warrant larger, more rigourous study through randomised control trials.

Background The first 2 years of a child’s life have been found to be crucial to healthy growth and development. Parent support groups can help parents to promote health-related behaviours during this crucial period. The aim of this study was to explore the experiences of parents who participated in a parent support group (Parent-Child Meetings) which promoted health-related behaviours of their children, and to determine whether and how these meetings supported them in promoting these behaviours. Methods We used a qualitative study design. The parent support group consisted of weekly Parent-Child Meetings organized in a multi-ethnic, relatively low-income neighbourhood in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Data on the experiences of parents was collected through participatory observations, informal conversations ( n  = 30 sessions) and semi-structured interviews ( n  = 13) between April 2019 and March 2020. The data was analysed using thematic content analysis. Results Parents indicated that they experienced the parent-child meetings as enjoyable and as providing them with socio-emotional support. They reported that the meetings increased their parenting knowledge, skills and practices regarding healthy behaviours of their children and that they used this knowledge in their daily lives. They also appreciated the practical information and advice provided by experts in the meetings. Parents indicated that the positive attitude of the experts was crucial in accepting and adopting their advice. Additionally, parents valued the interactive and hands-on workshops, which integrated health-related behaviours and active play with children, as it enabled them to learn while they played with their children. Conclusion This study indicated that parent-child meetings contributed to enhancing parental knowledge, skills and practices regarding healthy behaviours of their children. This could potentially benefit the health of children during the first 2 years of their lives. In particular, the peer support of other parents, the hands-on workshops, and the concrete advice and information provided in an informal setting were highly valued by parents. Future parent support groups could use these findings to improve their meetings or to start meetings that better suit the needs of parents with young children.

Colonisation in Australia has had long-term, pervasive, detrimental impacts on Indigenous Australians. When measured by national benchmarks, Indigenous children in Australia are currently at increased risk of developmental difficulties in comparison to their non-Indigenous peers. Community-led initiatives, such as playgroups, can provide safe and developmentally stimulating environments for Indigenous infants and young children, and deliver lasting benefits. These contexts also provide opportunities for collaborative approaches to develop children’s early communication skills. A participatory action research approach was applied to explore parent/carer perspectives about incorporating speech pathology into an existing community-led Aboriginal playgroup in an urban context. The speech pathology service took the form of information sharing sessions between the speech pathologist and the playgroup members. Collaborative planning and implementation of the project was followed by discussion among the participants and co-researchers about the cultural safety and helpfulness of the speech pathology service. The complexity of incorporating services delivered by non-Indigenous people in an Aboriginal community-controlled playgroup was acknowledged. The information sharing sessions were regarded as helpful and acceptable by the community. However, in the planning and implementation of the service, cultural and community needs must be considered as a precedent and priority to ensure a culturally safe and strong environment.

Adolescent pregnancy can impact the educational attainment of adolescent mothers and language development of their children. However, support services and interventions can mitigate these risk factors. Adolescent mothers have shown success in implementing various language facilitation strategies (LFS) with their children when coached. We developed a triadic language intervention in a facilitated playgroup context to support adolescent mothers’ use of language strategies when interacting with their children. The current pilot study utilized a pre-test, post-test descriptive approach to analyze differences in adolescent mothers’ language use and parenting behaviors and their children’s language use after participation in facilitated playgroups. All adolescent mothers demonstrated enhanced parenting practices. Changes in mothers’ and children’s language from pre- to post-test were variable across participants. While this pilot study shows promising evidence of the utility of a triadic intervention situated in playgroups with adolescent families, further research is required to address the limitations of this study.

Community playgroups are member-run parenting groups in Australia, aligned with early childhood services. Parents and carers meet weekly with their babies, toddlers and preschool children. Through interviews with mothers who attend community playgroups, I find that these playgroups are important sites of social support for parents. Social support is interwoven with parental and family identity, and the shift in identity when becoming a parent. This is demonstrated through three themes: making a connection, shared practices and language, and judgement and respect. Parents seek out a playgroup in which to belong, where they feel included and respected. These findings can inform the creation and operation of parenting groups.