Early development of emerging and English-proficient bilingual children at school entry in an Australian population cohort
Children who enter school with limited proficiency in the language of instruction face a range of challenges in negotiating this new context, yet limited data have been available to describe the early developmental outcomes of this subpopulation in the Australian context. The Australian Early Develo...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Journal Article |
| Published: |
Sage Publications Ltd.
2014
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/45093 |
| _version_ | 1848757187138027520 |
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| author | Goldfeld, S. O'Connor, M. Mithen, J. Sayers, M. Brinkman, Sally |
| author_facet | Goldfeld, S. O'Connor, M. Mithen, J. Sayers, M. Brinkman, Sally |
| author_sort | Goldfeld, S. |
| building | Curtin Institutional Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | Children who enter school with limited proficiency in the language of instruction face a range of challenges in negotiating this new context, yet limited data have been available to describe the early developmental outcomes of this subpopulation in the Australian context. The Australian Early Development Index (AEDI) is a teacher-rated checklist that measures five important domains of child development: physical health and wellbeing, social competence, emotional maturity, language and cognitive skills, and communication skills and general knowledge. In 2009, the AEDI was completed for 97.5% of Australian children in their first year of schooling (N = 261,147; M = 5 years, 7 months of age), providing a unique opportunity to explore the cross-sectional associations between language background, proficiency in English, and early developmental outcomes at the population-level. Logistic regression analyses revealed that, compared to their peers from English-speaking backgrounds, bilingual children who were not yet proficient in English had substantially higher odds of being in the “vulnerable” range (bottom 10th percentile) on the AEDI domains (OR = 2.88, p < .001, to OR = 7.49, p < .001), whereas English-proficient bilingual children had equal or slightly lower odds (OR = .84, p < .001, to OR = .97, ns). Future research with longitudinal data is now needed to establish causal pathways and explore long term outcomes. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T09:24:06Z |
| format | Journal Article |
| id | curtin-20.500.11937-45093 |
| institution | Curtin University Malaysia |
| institution_category | Local University |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T09:24:06Z |
| publishDate | 2014 |
| publisher | Sage Publications Ltd. |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | curtin-20.500.11937-450932017-09-13T14:17:04Z Early development of emerging and English-proficient bilingual children at school entry in an Australian population cohort Goldfeld, S. O'Connor, M. Mithen, J. Sayers, M. Brinkman, Sally Children who enter school with limited proficiency in the language of instruction face a range of challenges in negotiating this new context, yet limited data have been available to describe the early developmental outcomes of this subpopulation in the Australian context. The Australian Early Development Index (AEDI) is a teacher-rated checklist that measures five important domains of child development: physical health and wellbeing, social competence, emotional maturity, language and cognitive skills, and communication skills and general knowledge. In 2009, the AEDI was completed for 97.5% of Australian children in their first year of schooling (N = 261,147; M = 5 years, 7 months of age), providing a unique opportunity to explore the cross-sectional associations between language background, proficiency in English, and early developmental outcomes at the population-level. Logistic regression analyses revealed that, compared to their peers from English-speaking backgrounds, bilingual children who were not yet proficient in English had substantially higher odds of being in the “vulnerable” range (bottom 10th percentile) on the AEDI domains (OR = 2.88, p < .001, to OR = 7.49, p < .001), whereas English-proficient bilingual children had equal or slightly lower odds (OR = .84, p < .001, to OR = .97, ns). Future research with longitudinal data is now needed to establish causal pathways and explore long term outcomes. 2014 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/45093 10.1177/0165025413505945 Sage Publications Ltd. restricted |
| spellingShingle | Goldfeld, S. O'Connor, M. Mithen, J. Sayers, M. Brinkman, Sally Early development of emerging and English-proficient bilingual children at school entry in an Australian population cohort |
| title | Early development of emerging and English-proficient bilingual children at school entry in an Australian population cohort |
| title_full | Early development of emerging and English-proficient bilingual children at school entry in an Australian population cohort |
| title_fullStr | Early development of emerging and English-proficient bilingual children at school entry in an Australian population cohort |
| title_full_unstemmed | Early development of emerging and English-proficient bilingual children at school entry in an Australian population cohort |
| title_short | Early development of emerging and English-proficient bilingual children at school entry in an Australian population cohort |
| title_sort | early development of emerging and english-proficient bilingual children at school entry in an australian population cohort |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/45093 |