Families As First Teachers (FaFT) is an educational playgroup for children under five years that delivers quality early learning and parent support programs to young children and their families.

FaFT acknowledges the important role families play as their child’s first teacher.

It develops place-based programs to engage families and communities, and builds upon  parents’ capacity to give their children the best start in life.

The aim of FaFT is to improve the lifelong education, health and wellbeing outcomes for young Northern Territory children and their families.

All FaFT educators are trained to implement strong teaching and learning strategies using the Abecedarian Approach.

The Abecedarian Approach places a priority on children’s language acquisition because language is a proven core of early learning and school readiness. Local educators conduct all aspects of the program in Murrinhpatha ensuring that families' first language and culture is  used to facilitate the best educational outcomes during conversational reading and learning games.

It focuses on developing frequent and intentional adult-child interaction, usually one-on-one, for children from birth to age 5. Research on the Abecedarian approach shows that it builds skills early on that last across the lifespan, emphasising the benefits of children learning in active, engaged, constructive, and interactive environments.

The four key elements of the Abecedarian Approach are the use of:

    These techniques support children to create bonds and attachment with adults from ages 0-1, feel secure and know they’re supported when exploring the world from ages 1-3, and use play to explore from ages 3-5. The tools also support healthy emotional, social, and cognitive development in children.

    Each of the elements has been aligned with contemporary Australian Early Childhood policy, including The Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF) and the National Quality Standard (NQS).