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A growing body of evidence suggests that engagement with quality early childhood education and care (ECEC) programs such as preschool can enhance children’s early development. The Australian Early Development Census (AEDC) provides a unique opportunity to explore the relationship between ECEC and children’s developmental outcomes in a full population cohort of Australian school entrants. The AEDC is a teacher-rated checklist that provides data on ECEC experiences in the year before starting school, as well as five important domains of child development at school entry: physical health and wellbeing, social competence, emotional maturity, language and cognitive skills, and communication skills and general knowledge. In 2009, the AEDC was completed for 97.5% of Australian children in their first year of formal schooling ( N = 261,147; M = 5 years, 7 months of age). Logistic regression analyses revealed that attendance at preschool was associated with reduced odds (OR = 0.69, p < 0.001 to OR = 0.40, p < 0.001) of being in the vulnerable range (<10th percentile) on four of the five AEDC domains (with the exception of emotional maturity; OR = 0.89, p = 0.002), compared to other ECEC experiences, or care exclusively by parents. Subsequent analyses revealed that this effect was evident for children living in both advantaged and disadvantaged communities. Together, the results suggest that engagement with preschool programs in Australia may present a plausible, equitable, and modifiable approach to improving children's developmental outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This opening paper presents the background to this Special Issue devoted to new international research using Early Development Instrument (EDI). The Canadian EDI and its adaptations to the Australian Early Development Census (AEDC), as well as the Chinese version used in Hong Kong, are examples of an assessment tool that brings data on child development at 4–6 years to a population level, in an accessible, feasible, and psychometrically valid manner. EDI measures are increasingly being used by governments, at all levels of jurisdiction, as a means of monitoring the status of early childhood development and then tracking progress over time. Recent innovations linking administrative datasets with EDI data have enabled research into the predictors, correlates, and sequelae of developmental status in early childhood. The eleven papers included in this Special Issue represent thoughtful, systematic, theory-based programs of research, informed by the broad scope of the EDI and supported by the availability of data for large, normative populations and especially often under-reported sub-populations of children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]