https://www.teachermagazine.com.au/articles/early-childhood-fewer-boys-ready-for-school
Summary
The Australian Early
Development Census is a nationwide snapshot of how children have developed by
the time they start school.
It measures
five areas of early childhood development. The areas are physical health and
wellbeing, social competence, emotional maturity, language and cognitive skills
(school-based), and communication skills and general knowledge.
The gender disparity
The AEDC National Report 2018. Echoing the 2015 report, the largest gender divide was in emotional maturity;
boys were 3.4 times more likely than girls to be developmentally vulnerable in
this domain.
Social competence, health and wellbeing
Boys continue to be more than twice as likely as girls to
be developmentally vulnerable in the social competence domain, and the physical
health and wellbeing domain.
Language and communication
In the other two domains, the gender disparity persisted:
language and cognitive skills (8 per cent of boys were deemed developmentally
vulnerable, compared with 5 per cent of girls)
Other
results of the census suggest that where children live can have an impact on
their development. Children living in very remote areas in Australia in 2018
were twice as likely as those living in major cities to be developmentally
vulnerable on one or more domains – 45 per cent and 20 per cent respectively.
