In Alice Springs, the Central Australian Aboriginal Congress is targeting at-risk Indigenous children before they even start preschool.

The Preschool Readiness Program has up to 10 places for children between the ages of three and four who have been identified as having developmental delays or come from challenging home environments.

Senior manager of Child and Family Services at Congress, Dawn Ross, said it was important to create an environment that was similar to a preschool at a primary school.

"We have purchased items that would enable a child to feel friendly and be familiarised with what a preschool would be like if they went to preschool and that's what our program is really about is getting kids familiarised and ready," she said.

Support for the whole family

Jaxon Croker enjoying his time at the Congress Preschool Readiness Program. ( Supplied: Central Australian Aboriginal Congress )

Victoria Croker enrolled her son Jaxon in the program in 2017 after his preschool teacher thought he may not be ready for school yet.

"He wasn't very focused; he was sort of all over the place," Ms Croker said.

"He wasn't quite interested in mat time and eating with the other kids so that's kind of where we thought he needed a bit of extra help."

Like many new mothers, Ms Croker struggled after the birth of her first child.

Dawn Ross, senior manager of Child and Family Services at Congress, Victoria Croker and her young son Matthew Rosas. ( ABC Alice Springs: Emma Haskin )

"I had a bit of a rough patch there. With the support that these guys offer, it's just amazing," she said.

"They bring in a doctor to see the children one-on-one and have time with the parents, and ask how the parents are going at home with everything and if need be they do the referrals and they help you to get to your appointments for the child's referrals."

Ms Croker said his teachers from mainstream preschool had noticed a transformation in Jaxon.

"A huge difference — he's a totally different kid now," she said.

"It was good that they had just a small group so they could focus on the kids one-on-one. He didn't have a lot of playgroup, so the program was really good to teach him routine, putting things away, and doing things on his own."

Early intervention key for future success

The program's team leader and psychologist Bianka Schulz-Allen said it helped to know the children's background story and how that may impact on their development.

She said it was common for children in their program to come from highly traumatic situations.

"What we do know is that when parents are impacted by trauma like domestic violence or alcohol, or any of those things, it does impact on the children's development and therefore we need to target the children and the parents in our interventions," she said.

Ms Schulz-Allen said early intervention was vital to ensure future success in mainstream education.

"What we do know from research is that between zero and five the brain development is most rapid and therefore we need to target children in that age group to allow them to be ready for school and for learning later on in life," she said.

"We measure children on several domains of their development like fine motor development, gross motor development, speech, receptive language, expressive language.

"All of those things and what we've measured is that all children in our program actually show a big improvement but mainly the language domain which allows them to progress in school."

Educators at the Congress Preschool Readiness Program, Mark Lockyer, Bianka Schulz-Allen and Bronwyn Fielding. ( ABC Alice Springs: Emma Haskin )

Positive male role models

The program's only male educator, Mark Lockyer, provided the children with a positive role model.

"I've been working with the program for about six months now and I'm enjoying it a lot," he said.

"I like working with families and building relationships with families and getting the family's engagement with their children.

"Families are welcome to come along to the preschool readiness program and be a part of it as well."

Mr Lockyer said trust was vital when engaging with the family and the children.

"We're working with their children so we want them to build up their relationship and they can trust us with their children's education," Mr Lockyer said.

The program's involvement continues when the children go into mainstream preschool.

"They're happy to see us and that we can talk to the teachers at the preschool as well and say what that child is like and how that child has improved," he said.

"It's good seeing the improvements of the child plus seeing that child have the confidence to start preschool."

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