Early childhood development over time for a cohort of Australian Aboriginal children living in an urban environment

Rebekah Grace*, Emma Elcombe, Jennifer Knight, Catherine McMahon, Jenny McDonald, Elizabeth Comino

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    1 Citation (Scopus)
    46 Downloads (Pure)

    Abstract

    Child development for a cohort of urban Aboriginal children was assessed at three time points: 12 months, 3 years and 4.5 years. This paper reports developmental findings and explores the impact of child, family, home and community variables over time. Overall, child development at 4.5 years was significantly below the standardised mean. Female gender, preschool attendance, and having 10+ child-appropriate books in the home were significantly related to better performance. Over time the children demonstrated strengths in the locomotor and personal-social domains. Maternal factors were most predictive of performance at 3 years. These results are discussed in relation to their meaning within the Aboriginal community.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)35-52
    Number of pages18
    JournalAustralian Journal of Educational and Developmental Psychology
    Volume15
    Publication statusPublished - 2017

    Bibliographical note

    Copyright The University of Newcastle 2017. Version archived for private and non-commercial use with the permission of the author/s and according to publisher conditions. For further rights please contact the publisher.

    Keywords

    • early childhood
    • development
    • Aboriginal Australians
    • urban environments

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