National Indicator Catalogue (NIC)

The Australian Early Development Index (AEDI) was completed nationwide for the first time in 2009. Information was collected on over 260,000 Australian children (97.5 per cent of the estimated five-year-old population) in their first year of fulltime school between 1 May and 31 July. COAG has endorsed the AEDI as a national progress measure of early childhood development in Australia.  The AEDI is a population measure of children–s health and development, based on the scores from a teacher-completed checklist in their first year of formal schooling. It aims to provide communities with a basis for reviewing the services, supports and environments that influence children intheir first 5 years of life. The AEDI measures development in five domains:

– physical health and wellbeing

– social competence

– emotional maturity

– language and cognitive skills (school-based)

– communication skills and general knowledge.

The AEDI is funded by the Australian Government and is conducted by the Centre for Community Child Health (at The Royal Children–s Hospital, Melbourne and a key research centre of the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute) in partnership with the Telethon Institute for Child Health Research, Perth.