Minister announces next AEDI phase
The Australian Early Development Index (AEDI) is used to measure five key domains of children in their first year of schooling: physical health and wellbeing; social competence; emotional maturity; language and cognitive skills (school based) and communication skills and general knowledge. Between May and July 2009, data was collected on more than 261,000 children - 98 per cent of all Australian children in their first year of full-time school. Teachers complete the AEDI Checklist (over 100 elements) for children in their class. While information for the AEDI is collected by children's teachers, the results are reported for the communities where children live, not where they go to school.
In December last year Minister for Early Childhood Education, Kate Ellis, and Minister for Education, Julia Gillard, launched the report of the project.
The national report showed that the majority of Australian children were doing well. But it also indicated that something needed to be done for about 23.5 per cent of children who are developmentally vulnerable on one or more domains.
Minister Ellis has now launched the next phase in AEDI information - detailed community profiles. These profiles provide more detail about the AEDI results for each community: what proportion of children are doing better than expected, what proportion are on-track and the proportion are developmentally vulnerable. They also provide other community information - including the number of children in the community, socio-economic indicators and more.
According to the Minister, "This rich source of information for each community will help politicians and policy makers determine priorities going forward, it will help not-for-profit and community groups determine what services and actions are needed. And it will help early childhood professionals and service providers to plan and target their resources to where they are most needed."
Follow this link to the AEDI website. It includes an area for parents with FAQs and a Parent Fact Sheet.
