Children's development is influenced by both nature and nurture.
In addition to the genes inherited from their parents, development is affected by parenting, the home environment, early experiences and opportunities to learn.
Every child deserves the best possible start in life. But what is essential for this? And who needs help the most? - these are the big questions.
Our researchers' work led to the roll-out in 2009 of the world's first ongoing "proven and reliable measure" of early childhood development - the Australian Early Development Census (AEDC). It is conducted every three years.
This triennial Census records how well children are developing in their first year of full-time school. The AEDC measures: physical health and wellbeing; social competence; emotional maturity; language and cognitive skills; communication skills and general knowledge.
The AEDC informs policy direction in Australia by exposing and mapping unmet needs.
Crucial insights revealed by the AEDC include:
- While the bulk of children are on track, 1 in 5 are behind in their development, with twice as many children in the most disadvantaged areas doing poorly.
- Where children live can impact on their development. Of children living in major cities, 21 per cent were developmentally vulnerable on one or more domains, compared to 47 per cent of children in very remote areas.
- More boys are developmentally vulnerable (28 per cent compared to 15 per cent of girls)
- Indigenous children are twice as likely to be developmentally vulnerable, however there are indications the gap may be starting to close.
- Those developmentally vulnerable on the language and cognitive domain, or on the communication and general knowledge domain, have lower NAPLAN numeracy and reading test scores in Year 3 and do not catch up.
Our research impact
Our researchers look for evidence-based answers by researching early childhood development, researching how services can best help children and families and translating the evidence into enhanced policy and practice.
Our research is informed by families, practitioners and policy makers.
CoLab is a recent initiative seed funded by the Minderoo Foundation which brings together families, clinicians, educators and other practitioners and researchers to improve service delivery to meet the needs of vulnerable children, families, and communities. New knowledge will be gained to inform and advocate for effective early childhood policy and practice.
Our researchers' projects include:
- Tracking the progress of children from birth to age five to identify what services are valuable to families to support health and wellbeing, education and care.
- Measuring the effectiveness of place based centres for children and families. These community-directed Centres act as a one-stop-shop for services and supports, bringing together service providers from different disciplines, professions, government departments, service organisations and the surrounding community. This includes research work in Tasmania, WA and South Australia.
- Supporting lower and middle income countries to monitor early child health, development and early education and care, particularly in relation to Sustainable Development Goals 3 and 4.
- Comparing developmental outcomes from around the globe and gauging the impact of differing social policies and service provision.
