Sharon Goldfeld and Yasmin Harman-Smith: Action needed to get children’s developmental progress back on track

A child’s early years provide the building blocks for a lifetime of good health, development and wellbeing. It’s therefore vital that researchers and policymakers know whether children are developmentally on track.

Australia is fortunate to have one of the world’s most comprehensive collections of data on early childhood development in the world. Every three year since 2009, teachers have reported on five key areas of children’s development in their first year of school as part of the Australian Early Development Census (AEDC). Last year, with the support of teachers, schools and communities, the AEDC included over 94 per cent of Australian children. This week, the Australian Government released the 2024 results, with the findings suggesting a need for action.

The data tells us that since the last census in 2021, the percentage of children developmentally on track across all five domains of the AEDC – physical health and wellbeing; social competence; emotional maturity; language and cognitive skills (school-based) and communication skills and general knowledge – has declined, at the same time as the number of children experiencing developmental vulnerability has risen.

The findings also highlight that while drivers of this downturn have affected children and families across the socio-economic spectrum, a sizable equity gap in the developmental outcomes of children remains. Children living in the most socio-economically disadvantaged communities experience substantially higher rates of developmental vulnerability compared to their peers growing up in areas with greater access to material resources. These unwelcome trends risk Australia’s future prosperity.

To prevent these findings worsening, we need to know what’s driving this developmental downturn. Is it related to the COVID-19 lockdowns (these children were babies and toddlers in 2020-22)? A reflection of cost-of-living pressures? Changes to the availability of early childhood intervention services or a lack of access to childcare and universal health services? How social media is affecting children’s interactions? Are we effectively responding to children and families’ changing needs?

The truth is, we just don’t have the answers right now. Hopefully, our research in coming months will help unpack cause and effect, but children’s developmental needs must be prioritised. We can’t relegate these statistics to a “watch and wait” approach.

In Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s election night speech, he spoke of building an Australia where “no one is held back, and no one is left behind” — a future we want for all Australian children.

These results don’t need to be the canary in the coalmine. We know from previous AEDC data that we can improve how all children and families are supported in the early years. The crucial questions are what can we do right now to help meet children’s early development needs? What plans will address these stark and seemingly immutable inequities? We have enough information to embark on evidence-based policy solutions, with remarkable political will — and capital — at the federal and state level.

We recommend five universal or targeted strategies that should be implemented within current policy commitments which include: Ensuring childcare and preschool is of high-quality, equitable and accessible; delivering on foundational supports through inclusive universal health and education that can identify and respond to child and family needs; stacking high-quality and evidence-based services together in integrated hubs; rapidly implementing the Better and Fairer School Agreement funding to disadvantaged schools with evidence-based strategies to deliver holistic support to all children, especially those with additional needs and embedding the right data systems for local improvement, solutions and accountability to rapidly drive real systems change.

There is a moment when we must stop being a spectator and start acting for change. That time is now. Australia must change the status quo if we are to see improvements reflected in the next AEDC in 2027.

Professor Sharon Goldfeld is Theme Director at Murdoch Children’s Research Institute; Associate Professor Yasmin Harman-Smith is Head of the Early Years Systems Evidence Team at The Kids Research Institute Australia