In an exciting first for Australia, every community will know how their children are developing when the Australian Early Development Index (AEDI) is rolled out in all schools from May to July 2009. The Australian Early Development Index (AEDI) is a population measure of how young children are developing in different Australian communities. The Council of Australian Governments (COAG) has endorsed the AEDI as a national progress measure of early childhood development.

The AEDI is designed to look at whole groups of children through a teacher-completed checklist measuring across five developmental domains: physical health and wellbeing, social competence, emotional maturity, language and cognitive skills, communication skills and general knowledge.
All teachers of children in their first year of full-time schooling will be asked to complete the AEDI checklist. In Tasmania this is the Prep year. This information will result in the development of community profiles, which will be published online at community, State/Territory and National levels by the end of 2009.

Supporting optimal early childhood development greatly increases children's chances of a successful transition to school and of achieving better learning outcomes whilst at school. For more information on the AEDI refer to the website (www.aedi.org.au) or contact the AEDI coordinator for Tasmania.

Contact

The Tasmanian AEDI Coordinator is Sally Giacon. Contact 6233 7795 or aedi@education.tas.gov.au.

A partnership between the Centre for Community Child Health (at The Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne and a key research centre of the Murdoch Children's Research Institute) and the Telethon Institute for Child Health Research, Perth. For general information visit www.aedi.org.au.