Community
1 September, 2026
‘Mini moments’ make a major difference: expert
Internationally renowned psychologist and education expert Professor Lea Waters had a simple but powerful message when she addressed parents, carers and educators in Bowral on Monday: Never underestimate the importance of ‘mini moments’ in a young child’s life.
Internationally renowned psychologist and education expert Professor Lea Waters had a simple but powerful message when she addressed parents, carers and educators in Bowral on Monday: Never underestimate the importance of ‘mini moments’ in a young child’s life.
“Mini moments end up making a major difference,” she said.
Professor Waters AM PhD spoke at the Bowral Memorial Hall on Monday morning as part of the At Our Table – Southern Highlands Wellbeing Forum.
Professor Waters said a mini moment could be as simple as a laugh, a tickle or a pat on the shoulder.
She said banking these positive moments as part of a strength-based approach to parenting helped create feelings of safety and bonding – leading to exploration and resilience.
“These little moments – we underestimate them, but they change the brain chemistry of your child,” she said.
“That’s such a gift you can give your child.”
Professor Waters was an engaging and captivating presenter who drew on her own experiences as a parent to explain what strength-based parenting was all about.
She said children were born with their own strengths and it was important to recognise them and to create situations where those strengths get to shine.
“Strength-based parenting is like panning for gold that is already there,” she said.
“You aren’t looking for something that isn’t.”
She said her son Nick had been born extremely funny while her daughter Emily had been born extremely brave – strengths they had maintained through until early adulthood.
Professor Waters said parents shouldn’t attempt to ‘fix’ problems in young children.
Instead, they should think about the strengths in their children that can be cultivated and amplified and consider what else they can work on as a parent to develop strengths in their children that would be of benefit.
She encouraged parents to engage in ‘strength spotting’ – identifying strengths in their children and using age-appropriate language to validate them.
She said cultivating strengths would help create trust and positivity.
Professor Waters said it was also important for parents to recognise their own strengths.
“Parenting is the most profound role but it is common to have doubts,” she said.
“Strength-based parenting anchors us in the good qualities so we can cultivate the strengths in our children,” she said.
Professor Waters said strength-based parenting provided certainty and calmness at a time of chaos in a young child’s life.
“Every day little ones are facing uncertainly because they are learning something new,” she said.
Professor Waters also spoke about the importance of rest for young children given brain growth between the ages of 0-6 years was “phenomenal”.
“It’s exhausting for the little one,” she said.
She said rest allowed the brain to refresh, the nervous system to restore and for learning to be consolidated.
Professor Waters said finding a balance between rest and play was an important part of strength-based parenting.
She described mini moments as an active strategy and something that should be weaved into family life and rest as a passive strategy.
Both were extremely important in a young child’s development.
The At Our Table – Southern Highlands Wellbeing Forum will continue on Thursday and Friday with a sessions for early educators, primary and secondary students, teachers and parents, concluding with a special session for fathers and sons in Berrima on Friday.
On Thursday night the other international expert at this year’s forum, Dr Arne Rubenstein OAM, will speak at the Bowral Memorial Hall on raising children in a technology driven world.
The session will commence at 7pm.
Dr Rubenstein is the founder and CEO of the Rites of Passage Institute and 2025 Father of the Year. For more information or to reserve your seat, visit https://collections.humanitix.com/our-table-wellbeing-forum-southern-highlands
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