Give your child the best start in life

What happens during the first 5 years of a child’s life – pregnancy to age 5 – has a huge impact on how they grow, develop and learn.

Girl painting in preschool

 

1:15

Brighter Beginnings

Give your child the best start in life. Find support, tools and resources.

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Video transcript

Brighter Beginnings

In the first 2000 days, from pregnancy to age 5, the quality time we spend with our children impacts how they grow, develop and learn.
Connecting and learning through play makes all the difference.
From making their first sound, first kick, first smile, or first word. 
Making a face, a mess, or a messy face. 
A new noise, a new work of art, new friends or new music. 
Making things up, making things add up, making up, measuring up. 
Playing up, dressing up or falling down. 
Making a dish, a wish, a word or a thousand stories. 
Making things disappear, reappear or appear from nowhere. 
Making things better, or just make believing. 
It’s the first 2000 days that make them. 
Give your child the best start in life. 

Brighter Beginnings  

From pregnancy until your child is 5 years of age, the brain develops more rapidly and they learn faster than at any other time.

There are many things you can do in your child’s early years to help give them the best start in life.

The Parent and Carer Information Hub has services and resources to support you during this important time. 

You can also find out more about why the first 5 years of a child's life matter. 

Parent and Carer Information Hub

The Parent and Carer Information Hub has services and resources to support you during the first 5 years of a child's life, from pregnancy until age 5.

 

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Pregnant women in a meeting with other women

Pregnancy

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Mother kissing her newborn

Newborn: birth to 3 months

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Baby in highchair eating green puree

Baby: 3 to 12 months

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A smiling toddler sits on play equipment.

Toddler: 1 to 3 years

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Preschool aged children watering a plant with their educator

Preschool: 3 to 5 years

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2 children at a kindergarten school tables

Getting ready for school

Photo of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander grandma with grandchild in kitchen

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families

These culturally safe resources centre on culture, Country, community, kin and family, which are essential to health and wellbeing. 

View resources

Tools

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Pacific Islander family including a mum and her toddler, grandmother and great grandparents

Find child and family health services

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Kindergarten boy in class sat down on the floor with class mates

Find early childhood education and care providers

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Mother holding cute newborn baby against her chest. The baby is looking at the camera

Having children

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Young girl with paint on her palms smiling.

Find health, welfare and community services

In serious and life threatening emergencies, call 000 for an ambulance

For urgent problems, go to your nearest emergency department 

If it is less urgent, contact your doctor or local medical centre. You can also call Healthdirect on 1800 022 222 for free health advice, 24 hours a day. 

If you need an interpreter:

Non-English speakers can access telephone interpreters any time through Translating and Interpreting Service National. 

  • Phone 131 450 (24 hours, every day of the year) 
  • Say the language you speak 
  • Have the name and number of the organisation ready 
If you need hearing or speech assistance:

People who are deaf or have a hearing or speech impairment can access an Australia-wide phone service through National Relay Service. 

  • Speak and Listen (speech-to-speech relay) users call 1300 555 727 
  • Teletypewriter users call 133 677 
  • SMS relay text 0423 677 767 
Automatic language translation

To use the automatic translator, select your preferred language from the translation tool at the top right-hand corner of any page on this website.  

More information

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Brighter Beginnings parent and children playing with autumn leaves

Why the first 5 years (pregnancy to age 5) matter

The NSW Government is working together to give all children in NSW the best start in life.

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A young girl of 4 or 5 is standing in a park on a sunny day wearing a yellow hat and yellow puffer jacket. She is smiling.

For professionals

We’re committed to working together to better support children and their families during the first 5 years of life. Find out how you can get involved and support.

Subscribe to the Brighter Beginnings newsletter

Keep up to date

The Brighter Beginnings newsletter is a space to share the latest news, tools and resources to support NSW families and children in the first 5 years of life. 

 

Subscribe now
A young girl on play equipment

March 2024 edition

Learn more about Health and development checks in ECEC services and the Early Childhood Health and Development Community of Practice. 

January 2023 edition

Catch up on the 2022 Brighter Beginnings First 2000 Days Summit and learn more about the importance of the first 5 years of life (pregnancy to age 5). 

October 2022 edition

Read more about the Dolly Parton Imagination Library and catch up on Early Childhood Education Roadshows. 

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