Almost 50 Ballarat kindergarten programs will share more than $1.15 million in new funding to help kinder students be better prepared to start school.
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According to Eureka Community Kindergarten Association chief Jo Guerts, more pre-schoolers than ever are needing extra help with the skills needed to set them up for learning and the state funding will allow centres to bring in extra speech therapists, occupational therapy, psychologists and staff training to help children.
Speech and language issues are common, while there are more children with social and emotional challenges such as not being able to regulate their own emotions.
And Ms Guerts said many children were falling behind in development of gross motor skills. "It could be something to do with children's lives becoming more sedentary but it is an evolving area and this will allow us to bring in occupational therapists and other professionals to help," she said.
"Research shows children's brain development in the first five years of their life is the most important time to set their brain up so really we are setting them up for a life of learning in that time."
"Early education is a foundation block for setting children up with this disposition for learning."
Australian research shows that one in five Victorian children start school developmentally vulnerable and once behind, they tend to stay behind.
The needs-based Early Childhood School Readiness Funding will reduce the impact of educational disadvantage of children's learning and development. Phoenix Kindergarten will receive the biggest grant in the region of more than $120,000.
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This is the first time the funding will be made available to all funded kindergartens in Victoria - including child care centres who offer funded kindergarten programs, and it will be a permanent part of kindergarten funding.
"We're helping children early so they can get the most out of kinder and start at school on track and on par with their peers," said Wendouree MP Juliana Addison.
Buninyong MP Michaela Settle said the funding would help get children school ready. "Local kinders will be able to draw on the expertise of speech and occupational therapists, language and literacy professionals and child psychologists to ensure no one child is left behind," she said.
