The Brain at Play: Puppets as a pedagogical tool
– Aylja Freeborn, Disability Advocacy Service Inc
p>Puppets can be made from a hand, a sock, a stick, a rock. This playful, hands-on workshop explores puppetry as a trauma-informed, culturally responsive tool for educators of children birth to 12 years.
You’ll discover how puppetry supports play-based learning, offers a safe “third object” for anxious or neurodivergent children, and connects to Aboriginal ways of knowing already embedded in story and making.
You’ll leave with:
- A finished puppet, ready for Monday morning
- A working puppet voice and basic animation techniques
- Practised scripts for everyday classroom moments
- Brain breaks and songs to support regulation and joy
No performance skills needed. Just bring your willingness to put a sock on your hand and have a go.
From Struggles to Strengths: Understanding Temperament and Neurodiversity in Early Childhood
– Siobhan Kennedy-Costantini, Science Minded Child Development
Some children experience the world more intensely, slowly or unpredictably than others. Often labelled “challenging behaviour,” these differences are better understood through temperament and neurodiversity.
This session reframes behaviour as an interaction between a child’s individual profile and their environment. Using the nine temperament traits, you’ll explore how sensitivity, adaptability and regulation shape children’s responses, and learn the concept of “goodness of fit,” small, intentional adjustments that reduce distress and escalation.
You’ll leave with:
- A clear understanding of how temperament shapes behaviour
- A framework for spotting mismatches between children and their environment
- Practical, achievable adjustments to expectations and responses
- A shift from managing behaviour to understanding it
Includes reflection prompts, Think-Pair-Share discussion and real scenario work.
From Awareness to Action: Turning Child Safety into Everyday Practice
– Holly-ann Martin, Safe4Kids Pty Ltd
Some children experience the world more intensely, slowly or unpredictably than others. Often labelled “challenging behaviour,” these differences are better understood through temperament and neurodiversity.
Awareness alone does not protect children. What protects them is language, skills, confidence and permission to act.
Drawing on the Safe4Kids Child Abuse Prevention Education Program, this hands-on workshop moves beyond theory into practical strategies for children birth to 12. You’ll actively take part in the same activities you’ll later use with children, including Safe and Unsafe sorting, sign language, songs and role-play.
You’ll leave with:
- Tools to teach “we all have the right to feel safe” through play
- The “Stop it, I don’t like it” assertiveness strategy
- Ways to expand children’s emotional vocabulary
- Child-friendly language for sensitive topics, without fear or alarm
- Strategies to embed safety into everyday routines
Leave feeling confident and ready to implement protective education immediately.
Get to know the Speakers
Aylja Freeborn is a trained primary educator and Lead Student Advocate at Disability Advocacy Services in Mparntwe (Alice Springs), supporting children and families across Central Australia to navigate education access, disability rights, and systemic inequity.
With over a decade of teaching experience across the world – including time as a Year 3 teacher at Yipirinya School and as a nursery group leader in Berlin – she brings a warm, multilingual, trauma-informed lens to her work with young children. Aylja is also a maker, a singer, and a co-conductor of the Mparntwe Children’s Choir.
Dr Siobhan Kennedy-Costantini is a developmental psychology specialist, founder of Science Minded, and a Circle of Security Parenting facilitator. She holds a PhD in Developmental Psychology and began her career teaching child development and psychology at university level.
While teaching evidence-based developmental science, Siobhan became increasingly aware of the gap between what research tells us about children’s behaviour and what is shared with parents, caregivers, and educators. This became even more apparent when she became a mother herself, leading her to create Science Minded.
Through her work, Siobhan translates developmental science into practical strategies for everyday settings. She works with early learning teams across Australia, supporting educators to understand behaviour through the lenses of temperament, neurodiversity, and nervous system regulation.
A key focus of her work is helping educators make sense of individual differences in how children experience and respond to the world. She supports teams to recognise traits such as sensitivity, adaptability, and persistence, and to understand how these influence behaviour, particularly in busy early learning environments.
Siobhan works with services supporting increasingly complex cohorts, including children who are highly sensitive, neurodivergent, or experience challenges with regulation. She focuses on helping educators identify mismatches between children and their environments, and make small, meaningful adjustments that improve outcomes.
She is known for making complex developmental science accessible, practical, and immediately usable, helping educators feel more confident in the moments that matter most.
Holly-ann Martin OAM is a renowned expert in child abuse prevention education, with extensive experience spanning over 35 years. She is the founder and Managing Director of Safe4Kids, a company that focuses on educating children and adults on how to prevent child abuse.
Over the years, Holly-ann has travelled worldwide, presenting her innovative program to audiences in the United Kingdom, the United States, Cambodia, Indonesia, Mexico, and Qatar. She has also conducted training programs in every state and territory in Australia, teaching an average of 4,500 children face-to-face every year.
In addition to her work as an educator, Holly-ann is also an accomplished author. She has written seven children’s books and two Parents’ Guides to Child Protection Education. Her books empower children and adults with the knowledge and skills to keep children safe.
Holly-ann’s commitment to child protection has earned her numerous accolades, including the Order of Australia Medal (OAM) in 2022 for service to children. Her work has undoubtedly made a significant impact on the lives of many children and families, and she continues to be a leading voice in the fight against child abuse.
Looking forward to hearing from you!
Do you have a question about the Little People, Big Dreams Conference? Want to get involved? We would like to hear from you!