Australian Early Development Census (AEDC)
Indicators
Combined domains
Communication skills and general knowledge domain
Emotional maturity domain
Language and cognitive skills (school-based) domain
Physical health and wellbeing domain
Social competence domain
Policy context
The assessment of a child’s readiness for learning involves the combined consideration of children’s socio-emotional, cognitive and behavioural strengths and vulnerabilities and the individual literacy and numeracy skills the child brings to school.
This indicator is informed by the Australian Early Development Census (AEDC), formerly the Australian Early Development Index, which is a national measure of early childhood development.
The AEDC is a population-based measure of children’s development as they enter their first year of full-time school. The assessment takes place nationally every three years. Teachers complete the Early Development Instrument for each child in their class.¹
The AEDC collects data relating to five key areas of early childhood development which are closely linked to child health, education and social outcomes. The five domains are physical health and wellbeing, social competence, emotional maturity, language and cognitive skills (school-based), and communication skills and general knowledge.
AEDC results are presented as the number and percentage of children who are developmentally on track, developmentally at risk and developmentally vulnerable in each domain.² Further, two summary indicators are presented to show the percentage of children who are developmentally vulnerable on one or more domain(s) and developmentally vulnerable on two or more domains.
For more information on the Australian Early Development Census refer to the Australian Early Development Census website. Available at: https://www.aedc.gov.au/
In 2009, when the AEDC was first completed nationally, a series of cut-off scores was established for each of the five domains. Children falling below the 10th percentile were considered ‘developmentally vulnerable’, children falling between the 10th and 25th percentile were considered ‘developmentally at risk’, and all other children were considered to be ‘developmentally on track’. The cut-off scores set in 2009 provide a reference point against which AEDC results can be compared. These have remained the same across all five collection cycles. Source: Australian Early Development Census National Report 2021, p. 45. Available at: https://www.aedc.gov.au/resources/detail/2021-aedc-national-report
