Latest news with #AustralianEarlyDevelopmentCensus
West Australian
2 days ago
- Health
- West Australian
Sharon Goldfeld and Yasmin Harman-Smith: Action needed to get children's developmental progress back on track
A child's early years provide the building blocks for a lifetime of good health, development and wellbeing. It's therefore vital that researchers and policymakers know whether children are developmentally on track. Australia is fortunate to have one of the world's most comprehensive collections of data on early childhood development in the world. Every three year since 2009, teachers have reported on five key areas of children's development in their first year of school as part of the Australian Early Development Census (AEDC). Last year, with the support of teachers, schools and communities, the AEDC included over 94 per cent of Australian children. This week, the Australian Government released the 2024 results, with the findings suggesting a need for action. The data tells us that since the last census in 2021, the percentage of children developmentally on track across all five domains of the AEDC – physical health and wellbeing; social competence; emotional maturity; language and cognitive skills (school-based) and communication skills and general knowledge – has declined, at the same time as the number of children experiencing developmental vulnerability has risen. The findings also highlight that while drivers of this downturn have affected children and families across the socio-economic spectrum, a sizable equity gap in the developmental outcomes of children remains. Children living in the most socio-economically disadvantaged communities experience substantially higher rates of developmental vulnerability compared to their peers growing up in areas with greater access to material resources. These unwelcome trends risk Australia's future prosperity. To prevent these findings worsening, we need to know what's driving this developmental downturn. Is it related to the COVID-19 lockdowns (these children were babies and toddlers in 2020-22)? A reflection of cost-of-living pressures? Changes to the availability of early childhood intervention services or a lack of access to childcare and universal health services? How social media is affecting children's interactions? Are we effectively responding to children and families' changing needs? The truth is, we just don't have the answers right now. Hopefully, our research in coming months will help unpack cause and effect, but children's developmental needs must be prioritised. We can't relegate these statistics to a 'watch and wait' approach. In Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's election night speech, he spoke of building an Australia where 'no one is held back, and no one is left behind' — a future we want for all Australian children. These results don't need to be the canary in the coalmine. We know from previous AEDC data that we can improve how all children and families are supported in the early years. The crucial questions are what can we do right now to help meet children's early development needs? What plans will address these stark and seemingly immutable inequities? We have enough information to embark on evidence-based policy solutions, with remarkable political will — and capital — at the federal and state level. We recommend five universal or targeted strategies that should be implemented within current policy commitments which include: Ensuring childcare and preschool is of high-quality, equitable and accessible; delivering on foundational supports through inclusive universal health and education that can identify and respond to child and family needs; stacking high-quality and evidence-based services together in integrated hubs; rapidly implementing the Better and Fairer School Agreement funding to disadvantaged schools with evidence-based strategies to deliver holistic support to all children, especially those with additional needs and embedding the right data systems for local improvement, solutions and accountability to rapidly drive real systems change. There is a moment when we must stop being a spectator and start acting for change. That time is now. Australia must change the status quo if we are to see improvements reflected in the next AEDC in 2027. Professor Sharon Goldfeld is Theme Director at Murdoch Children's Research Institute; Associate Professor Yasmin Harman-Smith is Head of the Early Years Systems Evidence Team at The Kids Research Institute Australia
Perth Now
4 days ago
- Health
- Perth Now
'Wake up call': more Aussie kids missing milestones
Nearly half of all Australian children are not meeting physical, emotional, social and communication developmental milestones by the time they start school, as calls for a universal early education system intensify. Only 53 per cent of children are developmentally on track when they start school, a slight decrease since 2021, according to the Australian Early Development Census. The national survey of 288,483 children and 16,723 teachers measured development across five domains: physical health and wellbeing, social competence, emotional maturity, language skills and communication. The rate of children developmentally vulnerable in two or more domains is at its highest level since the census began in 2009, sitting at 12.5 per cent. Only 43 per cent of children in remote Australia were developmentally on track, compared to 50 per cent in larger regional areas and 54 per cent in the major cities. Those rates represented a slight decline for all children since the last census in 2021. There were also developmental gaps among First Nations students and children from lower-income families. The results demonstrated the urgency for equitable early education and health services, according to several advocacy groups. Children's health charity Royal Far West, which links rural families with specialist support, has long been highlighting the shortage of early intervention services in the bush. There were nearly 200,000 children in remote areas with very limited access to speech and language therapy or mental health support, with 37 psychologists per 100,000 people in outer regional areas. The federal government must live up to its promise to even the playing field, the charity's chief executive Jacqui Emery said. "(The) government must ensure that every Australian child, regardless of their location or circumstances, is not left behind," Ms Emery said. "The 2024 census underscores how urgent and important these reforms are for all Australian children." There have been several steps towards universal access, with the government introducing a three-day guarantee for early childhood education, abolishing the activity test and committing to build more services in areas of need. Minderoo Foundation's Thrive By Five campaign, which highlights the importance of learning and brain development in a child's early years, called for more comprehensive reforms including tailored services for First Nations children. "This data should be a wake-up call, but it should also be a call to action," spokesman Griffin Longley said. "We know what works and we know how to fix this; now we need to build the system that gives every Australian child the foundation they deserve."
