Olivia Karaolis

Mum of three beautiful people, I care so much about schools, schools that value and celebrate all children and their teachers.

[Olivia Karaolis @OKaraolis]

@USyd_SSESW This is good!

[Sydney School of Education & Social Work @USyd_SSESW]

The Sydney School of Education and Social Work supports an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice to Parliament.

SSESW Ass Prof Lynette Riley AO: "Voting ‘Yes’ to the Voice allows for full inclusion and an opportunity to set agendas"
Read in full: https://t.co/h4cudz22kD

[Cátia Malaquias @CatiaMalaquias]

Our disabled Commissioners spoke powerfully on Friday - here are their reflections on what they heard during the #DisabilityRC @AmandaRishworth @billshortenmp @MarkDreyfusKCMP @SenatorJordon

[Olivia Karaolis @OKaraolis]

@Pontifex For those unsure- the answer is here-
https://t.co/6dz95OtieM. I think it is very helpful to guide our actions and so important.

[Olivia Karaolis @OKaraolis]

@Pontifex Yes.

[Olivia Karaolis @OKaraolis]

@WWDA_AU @DRC_AU They also communicate the idea and prevent any change in the belief that the disabled community belong elsewhere-out of sight.

[Olivia Karaolis @OKaraolis]

Join supporters in Sydney on Sunday 17 September and Walk for Yes. Walk with us.https://t.co/1hT0XPf3Yn

[Olivia Karaolis @OKaraolis]

Wonderful opportunity for artists with a disability:
https://t.co/LlYl51QNkY

[Olivia Karaolis @OKaraolis]

What happens when we cut corners: Suffer the little children https://t.co/PXBYWeUg2w via @AustAssocResEd

[Olivia Karaolis @OKaraolis]

Reflect, connect, ignite – for joy: https://t.co/Zt8Cq9jsYO

[Olivia Karaolis @OKaraolis]

@MikeCarlton01 Perhaps!

[Olivia Karaolis @OKaraolis]

@MargaretRenkl How brave you are and hopefully some good will come of this.

[Olivia Karaolis @OKaraolis]

@MargaretRenkl My thoughts are with you as you brave this storm.

[Olivia Karaolis @OKaraolis]

@muranofiction Dear Doug,
Sending you and Charlie very best wishes.
Warmly,
Olivia

[Dan Wuori @DanWuori]

I want to talk about trust and attachment in young children. And there’s no video here for good reason.

Several of you have recently tagged me to ask my thoughts on trending videos depicting parents engaging in one appalling behavior or another - in pursuit, apparently, of social media likes.

In one trend, parents pretend to be FaceTiming with their child’s new kindergarten teacher and call their child over to meet her. When they get to the phone, the child comes face to face with a photo of a scary looking adult (which in some cases appear to be mugshots of women deep in the throes of drug addiction, if, in fact, they are real at all). The children are almost always alarmed. Often they cry.

During one of the biggest transitions in their young child’s life (the start of school), these parents have chosen to stoke anxiety rather than provide comfort.

Other recent trends have involved parents in throwing slices of American cheese at their toddlers - or, more recently, unexpectedly cracking a raw egg on their child’s forehead during a joint cooking activity.

Obviously I’m not going to uplift any examples here. But I do want to address the harm these kinds of behaviors create from a developmental perspective.

The years of early childhood are a time during which trust and attachment are (ideally) formed. With love, attention, and responsive caregiving, young children learn that their world is safe. They develop self worth and self esteem. These are prerequisites to both learning and healthy development.

But the key to developing trust is consistency.

And the behaviors in these videos - even if rare and anomalous - serve only to undermine healthy attachment between parent and child. They provide children with data points that suggest their parents can be unexpectedly and arbitrary cruel. They are a violation of hard earned trust.

Some will argue that these are just jokes in good fun. They aren’t. They are the deliberate infliction of trauma, however brief, for the amusement of strangers. It should go without saying that this isn’t good for children.

Please. Don’t. Just don’t.

[Olivia Karaolis @OKaraolis]

@DanWuori I want to talk about this too! We care more about what strangers think of us than how we think about ourselves.

[Olivia Karaolis @OKaraolis]

Thank you! The same people excel at object recognition through vision, hearing and touch – another reason to let go of the learning styles myth https://t.co/PhwZ9m1Y8z via @ConversationUS

[Olivia Karaolis @OKaraolis]

Sign the petition: I’m voting Yes! https://t.co/JyIH9n9l98

[Olivia Karaolis @OKaraolis]

@inkiltumper Exquisite

[Olivia Karaolis @OKaraolis]

“I thought my mother was an only child. I was wrong.” For @TheAtlantic’s September 2023 issue, @JenSeniorNY writes about her aunt Adele, who was institutionalized as a toddler because of an intellectual disability, and the life she could have lived. https://t.co/Nqgguqy9fQ