By LIA SPENCER
CHILDREN in the City of Casey have improved in all areas of development over the past three years, according to a recent study.
Last week, the 2012 Australian Early Development Index (AEDI) was released, and like 2009, Victoria recorded the lowest percentage of developmentally vulnerable children in Australia.
Despite the unfavourable state-wide results, Casey had made significant improvements in child development.
AEDI data is collected every three years by teachers across the country to measure a child’s development during the first year of school.
A checklist is used to measure development across five domains; physical health and well-being, social competence, emotional maturity, language and cognitive skills, communications skills and general knowledge. Children in the lowest 10th percentile of each domain are considered developmentally vulnerable in that area.
Data is grouped by local council areas to ensure communities, schools and early years services have a snapshot of how well children are faring at the point of entering school.
Casey recorded significant improvements across all development domains in a 2009 and 2012 data comparison.
The percentage of developmentally vulnerable children in one or more of the seven areas fell by 3.9 per cent from 25.9 per cent in 2009 to 22 per cent in 2012 and the percentage of children vulnerable in two areas fell by 2.4 per cent to 10.5 per cent.
The most significant improvements in the City of Casey were in the physical health and well-being domain and the communications skills and general knowledge area.
City of Casey manager of Children’s Services Virginia Lloyd welcomed the results and said it reinforced the work being undertaken by the council for children and families in the municipality.
“The City of Casey facilitates a ‘Best Start’ partnership where family and children’s service providers and agencies partner with the City of Casey to focus on the well-being of children in the areas of improving reading, writing and numeracy, and increasing participation in physical activity,” Ms Lloyd said.
“Council hosts a range of events through this partnership to provide experiences for children that promote child development including the Woodlands Walk, Playdaze, Children’s Week activities and campaigns like ‘Reading together gets us talking’ which identified the favourite 12 children’s books in Casey.”
Minister for Children and Early Childhood Development Wendy Lovell congratulated the Casey community for working together to improve the way local children develop and grow.
“The data shows that the Victorian Government’s ongoing investment in universal and enhanced Maternal and Child Health services, supported playgroups, home learning support and free kindergarten for vulnerable children is making a real difference for Casey children,” Ms Lovell said.
“While the data demonstrates that Casey’s children are faring better than they were, there is still much work to do to ensure that all local children grow up healthy and strong, and meet their potential at school and beyond.”
AEDI was first implemented nationwide in 2009 and is funded every three years by the Australian Government to measure the development of about 270,000 children in their first year of full-time school.
The 2012 data showed the percentage of developmentally vulnerable children in Victoria falling from a national low of 20.3 per cent in 2009 to 19.5 per cent in 2012.
To find more information visit http://maps.aedi.org.au/lga/vic/21610.
