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About the AEDI

The Australian Early Development Index (AEDI) is a population measure of children´s development as they enter school. Based on the scores from a teacher-completed checklist, the AEDI measures five areas of early childhood development.

• The AEDI provides information about how communities have raised their children before school
• The AEDI pinpoints strengths in communities as well as what can be improved

The AEDI population is all children in the first year of full-time schooling within a community or a geographic area.

The AEDI is based on the scores from a teacher-completed checklist consisting of over 100 questions in the 5 developmental domains of physical health and well-being, social competence, emotional maturity, language and cognitive skills, and communication skills and general knowledge. These domains are closely linked to predictors of good adult health, education and social outcomes.

Read more about information collected on the AEDI...

A population measure places the focus on all children in the community. Therefore the AEDI examines early childhood development across the whole community. It is now known 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. The AEDI can be used by communities, schools and policy makers in conjunction with other resources (such as state and national statistics) to plan and evaluate efforts to create optimal early childhood development.

Research shows that investing resources and energy into children´s early years, when their brain is developing rapidly, will bring life-long benefits to them and to the whole community. The AEDI is a measure of how young children are developing in different communities. This information will enable communities and governments to pinpoint the types of services, resources and supports young children and their families need to give children the best possible start in life.

Read more about early childhood development...

About us

The AEDI is conducted by the Centre for Community Child Health at The Royal Children's Hospital Melbourne, in partnership with the Telethon Institute for Child Health Research, Perth. The national implementation of the AEDI is funded by the Commonwealth Government Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations.

The AEDI National Support Centre, based at the Centre for Community Child Health, coordinates AEDI activity across Australia.

Read more about who´s who in the AEDI

Development of AEDI

Development in Canada

The Early Development Instrument (EDI) was originally developed in Canada at the Offord Centre for Child Studies, McMaster University, Ontario. As of 2007, the EDI has been completed on over 520,000 Canadian children. The EDI results have been used to geographically map children's development in British Columbia. See British Columbia ECD Mapping Portal.

Read more about how the EDI developed in Canada...

Development in Australia

The AEDI was adapted for Australia by the Centre for Community Child Health at The Royal Children's Hospital Melbourne in partnership with the Telethon Institute for Child Health Research, Perth. 

Read more about how the AEDI developed in Australia...

Indigenous AEDI (I-AEDI) Adaptation Study

The Indigenous Australian Early Development Index (I-AEDI) Study is being undertaken by the Telethon Institute for Child Health Research, through its Kulunga Research Network and the Centre for Developmental Health, Curtin University. The I-AEDI Study is part of the national AEDI program conducted by the Centre for Community Child Health in partnership with the Telethon Institute for Child Health Research. The project aims to:

• Evaluate how the AEDI is working for Indigenous children.
• Ensure the AEDI can collect information on Indigenous children´s culturally related ways of learning and behaving that will be helpful in creating successful learning environments for them at school.
• Develop tools and resources to assist in capacity building in communities with Indigenous populations. This will involve working with communities to develop and test resources and methods for interpreting and using their findings to mobilise community action, advocacy and funding for services to improve early child development and preparation for school learning for Indigenous children.

This study is currently underway and will inform national implementation of the AEDI.

Download the latest I-AEDI newsletter (July 2008)

Uses for the AEDI

The AEDI:

• Helps communities understand how their local children are doing developmentally and compared to children nationally and in other communities. 
• Provides results in the form of a map to give communities a picture of early childhood. development strengths and vulnerabilities in each community on each of the developmental areas.
• Results can be used with other socio-demographic and community statistics.
• Provides insights into how a childs community and social environment affects their success at school and in life.

Read more about uses for the AEDI...

Frequently asked questions

Read more information in our Frequently asked questions...