The Australian Early Development Index

Media Release, The Hon Julia Gillard MP, 27 April 2009; The Australian, 27 April 2009; Canberra Times, 28 April 2009

The Australian Government Minister for Education, Employment and Workplace Relations, Ms Julia Gillard, has announced that Prep children across Australia will be assessed using the Australian Early Development Index (AEDI) by July 2009.

The AEDI is a questionnaire that consists of a checklist of 100 factors that assess children’s physical health and wellbeing, social competence, emotional maturity, language and learning skills, communication skills and general knowledge. It is designed to identify children who are at risk of falling behind developmentally in their first five years.

Minister Gillard stated that ‘the data collected through the AEDI can be used to inform communities about the health and development of children in their area and can be used to better target and develop support and services that can help children in their first five years of life’. Minister Gillard indicated that information would be forwarded to all Australian schools and emphasised that results published from the AEDI would not identify individual children.

For further information, click here to download the Australian Early Development Index Information Sheet (PDF).

 

 

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