OECE helps raise awareness of toddler’s brain injury
IN THE MEDIA – October 12, 2025
This week, The Press and The Post published a story about how a toddler sustained a brain injury at his early childhood centre five years ago.
At the time, Nelson Zhang was just 14-months-old. His parents have never got answers about the circumstances leading up to him being found laying on his back on a concrete path.
Despite the incident, licensing rules remain unchanged – prompting calls for stronger safety standards (including ensuring active supervision of children and CCTV in playgrounds)
The Office of Early Childhood Education has been supporting his mum and dad, Olivia and Elmer, since the incident.
This has included helping them speak out publicly about the ordeal they’ve faced.
For The Press’ story, our chief advisor Dr Sarah Alexander told reporter Marine Lourens that parents expected their children to be safe in ECE “but too often when something goes wrong, it is brushed off as just an ‘unfortunate accident”.
We’ve also covered Nelson’s story extensively on the OECE website. You can read our investigation here.
Read the learning for our sector that we can take this – and specifically the learning for all providers of ECE services.
