One quarter of Australian kids are ‘developmentally vulnerable’ when they start school. Quality childcare can catch them up

We know the first five years are a crucial time in a child’s life. Early experiences, such as family relationships or exposure to trauma, shape brain architecture, which lays the foundation for children’s learning, behaviour and health.

Worryingly, a significant proportion of young Australians are not getting the positive early experiences they need. As of 2024, almost 25% of Australian children were identified as “developmentally vulnerable” by the time they start school. This means many children lack the self-regulation, thinking, language, resilience and social skills needed for learning and getting along with their peers.

Without early intervention, problems with brain development and antisocial behaviour become entrenched and can have a lasting impact.

But our research, based in Australian childcare centres, shows that with intensive, high-quality education and care, we can help children catch up.

How the intervention works

Research shows high-quality early education programs can intervene and prevent or reduce the disruptive impact of trauma and stress on vulnerable children.

In 2009, we designed a program to operate in a childcare centre for Australian children living with significant social disadvantage and exposure to trauma, abuse or neglect. This can include family violence or alcohol or substance abuse. We have since been replicating and testing it in various locations.

To participate in our program, children are referred by community health and child protection professionals. Children attend the program for five hours a day, five days a week for three years. There is no cost to families.

The program is currently being run at three sites in partnership with three childcare providers in Victoria and Queensland, with 108 children participating.

What’s involved?

The program is more intensive than usual early learning and care to match the complex needs of the children and families.

Educators are supported by an expert team that includes early childhood education leaders, infant mental health specialists and social workers who work with families with complex needs. The expert team provides practical advice to the educators to help them work with these families and children.

Children are provided with nourishing homemade food for breakfast, morning tea, lunch and afternoon tea every day at the centre. Learning is individualised to meet children’s interests and abilities. There are purposefully designed indoor and outdoor play spaces and equipment.

Families also receive wraparound support without judgement from the staff team. For example, if parents ask for help with sleep routines or feeding problems, staff respond in respectful and practical ways. Every interaction with a parent is welcoming and kind.

The program is designed to provide children with a stable, safe, holistic, high-quality and relationally focused education and care model. The evidence tells us this reduces the impact of trauma so children can engage in play and learning and helps families connect with local community support.

Does it work?

Children’s outcomes are assessed independently after one and two years by qualified clinical researchers.

A recent evaluation of the program shows that after one year, children recorded an average increase of 11.6 points in scores for resilience, capacity for self-regulation and forming attachments with others, according to a standard scale.

Children also showed a 7.2-point increase in language development and a 4.6-point increase in IQ.

We will next assess children after two years in the program, before they start school.

These mirror other findings

These findings are similar to those of an original trial of our program. In 2022, we published the results of a randomised controlled trial of the model.

Here, we tracked 72 children who had participated in our program and compared their developmental outcomes with those of 73 children from similar backgrounds who participated in a mix of parental care and usual early education programs. The differences in outcomes between the two cohorts indicate that intensive, targeted programs are highly beneficial for children living with significant family stress and disadvantage.

We found large and significant positive cognitive and social-emotional outcomes for children after two years. We also found improved language outcomes after three years of participation compared with children who had not been in the program.

The outcomes from the 2026 evaluation are particularly noteworthy because the children entered the program with more family risk factors than the original group we studied.

What next?

Children’s outcomes from our program suggest there is a role for targeted, intensive programs within the early education and care system for children from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Our research provides evidence that intervening early, well before children start school, has the potential to make a significant difference to children’s life trajectories.

Our research also suggests that families and children are living with increasingly complex and heightened levels of risk and hardship. It is unrealistic to expect early childhood educators to manage these complex risks without the support of other professionals, such as infant mental health practitioners.

This means we need additional and targeted funding to support multidisciplinary teams and experienced, qualified leaders and educators in early learning services.

Then we can directly help children living with high levels of disadvantage to ensure they start school developmentally equal to their peers.

Anne Kennedy, Honorary Fellow, Faculty of Education, The University of Melbourne

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons licence. Read the original article here. 

Image credit: Ksenia Chernaya/Pexels