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28 October 2025
Question on Notice from Mr Sam Birrell (Member for Nicholls) in Thriving Kids Hearing 20 October 2025
One of the witnesses said that one in four children are not on track in terms of the development goals. Is there data to show whether there are differences in rural, regional remote and metropolitan areas?
Response:
The data regarding the 1 in 4 children not being developmentally on track with their communication skills when they start school comes from the Australian Early Development Census (AEDC). The AEDC collects data every three years whereby teachers of children in their first year of school complete a questionnaire about five key areas of early childhood development. This data is translated into three categories: Developmentally on Track, Vulnerable or At Risk. More information about their data and further data sets are available on the Australian Early Development Census (AEDC) website.
With regard to communication skills, the AEDC National Report 2024 states that nationally there are higher rates of children who are developmentally vulnerable in remote areas compared with metropolitan areas however regional areas have similar levels of vulnerability to metropolitan areas1. Nationally there has been an increase in the past three years (between 2021- 2024) in the percentage of children who are developmentally vulnerable in their communication skills in both metropolitan and remote areas, whereas regional areas have remained relatively stable2.
There are some state by state differences in the 2024 intra-state data outlined below. Data taken from the AEDC data set that can be accessed here: remoteness-2009-24.xlsx
The following information relates to the domain of communication skills and general knowledge:
NSW - more children in remote areas were developmentally vulnerable compared to those in metropolitan and regional areas in New South Wales. The percentages of children identified as developmentally vulnerable in metropolitan and regional areas were similar.
VIC – more children in remote areas were developmentally vulnerable, compared to those in metropolitan and regional areas in Victoria. Similar percentages of children were developmentally vulnerable in metropolitan and regional areas.
QLD - more children in regional and remote areas were developmentally vulnerable compared to those in metropolitan areas in Queensland.
SA - fewer children in regional areas were developmentally vulnerable compared to those in metropolitan areas in South Australia. The highest percentage of children who were developmentally vulnerable were in remote areas in South Australia.
WA - fewer children in regional areas were developmentally vulnerable compared to those in metropolitan areas in Western Australia. The highest percentage of children who were developmentally vulnerable were in remote areas in Western Australia.
1 AEDC National Report 2024 p. 23
2 AEDC National Report 2024 p. 26
The Speech Pathology Association of Australia Limited
ABN 17 008 393 440
TAS, NT and ACT did not have data available for all geographical areas (metropolitan, regional and remote).
Description of developmental levels in the Communication and Knowledge domain3
3 AEDC National Report 2024 p 12