The national report released today from the Australian Early Development Census (AEDC) shows that in 2015, most children in Australia were on track.
Minister for Education and Training, the Hon Simon Birmingham, today launched the latest collection of data from the AEDC, a population measure of how young children have developed by the time they start their first year of full-time school.
You can read the Minister's media statement here.
The Kids Research Institute Australia has been involved in the programme from the very beginning, releasing the initial pilot results in 2003 when the Canadian-developed Early Development Index was adapted for use in Australia by Sally Brinkman and Bret Hart from the North Metropolitan Health Service. It was the first time that the EDI had been used outside of Canada.
The Kids Research Institute Australia lead researcher Dr Sally Brinkman said it was exciting to see the results from the third round of national data collection which for the first time provides early child development trends.
"The AEDC is a proven and reliable measure of children's development and the results help communities understand what's working well and what needs to be improved so that everyone in the community can better support the development of young kids before they start school," Dr Brinkman said.
"It has been very rewarding to see how our early work in piloting the EDI in Perth more than 10 years ago has progressed to a national measure of child development."
"In our pilot study back in 2003, we surveyed the teachers of more than 4300 pre-primary students," Dr Brinkman said. "In 2015, the AEDC collected information on more than 300,000 children."
"The Australian Government should be commended for putting early child development on the agenda and supporting programmes like the AEDC to track child development over time."
In 2005, The Kids and the Centre for Community Child Health surveyed over 16,700 children in 25 communities across Australia as part of the Australian Early Development Index (AEDI) funded by the Australian Government Department of Family and Community Services with corporate support from Shell in Australia.
In 2008, the AEDI was adapted for use in Indigenous communities to take into account cultural differences in child development. This was funded by Shell Australia and the Federal Government's Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR).
In 2008, the Council of Australian Governments endorsed the AEDI as a national progress measure of early childhood development, changing the programme name to the Australian Early Development Census, in July 2014.
In 2009, the AEDC was completed nationwide for the first time with the Australian Government providing $21.9 million for the implementation of the AEDC in recognition of the need for all communities to have information about early childhood development.
The second round of data collection took place in 2012 and provided the first opportunity to explore change in the level of developmental vulnerability for children living in different communities, states and territories within Australia.
In 2015, the third collection of data was undertaken in Australia, enabling communities, governments, early childhood professionals and researchers to compare AEDC data across time and, for the first time, to start tracking emerging trends.
On the AEDC programme, the Australian Government works in partnership with State and Territory Governments, the Social Research Centre (SRC) Melbourne, The Kids Research Institute Australia Perth and the Centre for Community Child Health, the Royal Children's Hospital Melbourne.
More information about the Australian Early Development Census can be found at www.aedc.gov.au
You can read the 2015 AEDC National Report here.
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