For parents
In 2009, information was collected on 261,203 Australian children in their first year of full-time school. The AEDI measures five areas of early childhood development: physical health and wellbeing, social competence, emotional maturity, language and cognitive skills (school-based), and communications skills and general knowledge
Teachers completed AEDI Checklist for children in their class. While information for the AEDI is collected by children's teachers, the results are reported for the communities where children live, not where they go to school.
The results for the AEDI are population results, which places the focus on all children in the community. Therefore the AEDI examines early childhood development across the whole community. Research shows that moving the focus of effort from the individual child to all children in the community can make a bigger difference in supporting efforts to create optimal early childhood development.