Early Years Edit | August 2025

Welcome to the August 2025 edition of the Early Years Edit. In this Edit we cover:

• 2024 AEDC Results
• Dental Health Week - 4 to 10 August
• Children's Book Week - 16 to 23 August
• Indigenous Literacy Day - 3 September
• Child Protection Week - 7 to 13 September
• Wanslea Age Passports
• Parenting Today Survey
• Raising Children Network

2024 AEDC Results

The results from the 2024 Australian Early Development Census (AEDC) are now live and can be accessed from the national website at www.aedc.gov.au.

The website hosts publicly available national, state/territory, and community AEDC results.

About the AEDC
The Australian Early Development Census (AEDC) is a key national initiative that helps to understand how children are faring in their first year of full-time school – in Western Australia this is Pre-primary.

The AEDC is research-backed tool that tracks the holistic development of young children across Australia. By highlighting strengths and areas for improvement, it provides vital insights that inform policies, programs, and services designed to support children’s wellbeing and development. 

With data collected every three years, the AEDC gives communities, educators, and governments at all levels the information they need to invest where it matters most, helping all children to thrive.

For further information visit the national AEDC website to:

• Find the latest data for your community as well as trends over time
• Download your Community Profile, tables and maps to access your area’s data
• Explore resources to support you to interpret and use the data in early years planning and action
• Find out about the latest AEDC research.

Dental Health Week 

Led by the Australian Dental Association, Dental Health Week (4–10 August) is an annual initiative designed to shine a light on oral health—and this year, the spotlight is firmly on children’s early dental milestones.

From the very first gummy grin to their teenage smile, every stage of a child’s oral development plays a crucial role in setting up lifelong habits. That’s why this year’s theme, ‘Reach Every S-milestone’, is all about empowering parents, carers, and communities to understand what growing smiles need at each phase—and how to help kids achieve healthy outcomes at every turn.

Oral hygiene isn’t just about avoiding cavities, it’s an essential part of overall health and wellbeing. By weaving good dental habits into daily routines early on, caregivers can help children grow into confident, cavity-free adults.

This campaign encourages all families to prioritise:

• Brushing twice per day using a fluoride toothpaste
• Cleaning in between teeth daily using floss or interdental brushes
• Eating a nutritious diet that’s low in sugar
• Seeing your dentist regularly.

To support families, educators and the wider community on this journey, the Dental Health Week website offers a wide variety of engaging resources. These include informative factsheets, a podcast series full of expert insights, and lessons and activities for early childhood to Year 3, including a Dental Health and Acid Science Experiment to try! There's also a free downloadable Guardians of the Gums e-book designed to make healthy habits fun and accessible for young children.

Children's Book Week

In 2025, The Children’s Book Council of Australia (CBCA) celebrates an incredible 80 years of Children’s Book Week. This year’s theme is ‘Book an Adventure’, with national events running from 16 to 23 August, including a special Birthday Book Adventure event held in each state and territory.

In Western Australia, the State Library is joining in the celebrations with a free Birthday Book Adventure Day on Saturday 23 August, featuring author and illustrator events, book signings, live storytelling and a treasure hunt! Children are encouraged to come dressed as your favourite book character and take part in a parade. There will also be a free exhibition titled Book an Adventure! Running from 16 August 2025 to 15 January 2026. The Story Place Gallery will feature original picture book artwork from the State Library’s Peter Williams Collection, established in 2006, and will include iconic illustrators such as Kelly Canby, Bob Graham, Alison Lester, Briony Stewart, and Shaun Tan.

The CBCA website has some great Children’s Book Week resources available, 
promotional materials, and the Book of the Year Notables list for 2025 . The notables list provides short reflections on 122 children’s books (chosen from 730 entries), including those in the category of Early Childhood and Younger Readers. Keep an eye out for the CBCA Book of the Year Award announcements on 15 August 2025.

Indigenous Literacy Day – 3 September

Indigenous Literacy Day, held annually on the first Wednesday of September, is a vibrant celebration of First Nations peoples’ stories, cultures and languages. This year, on Wednesday 3 September, the Indigenous Literacy Foundation (ILF) invites families, educators and communities to explore the theme ’Strength In Our Stories: For Now & Future Generations’.

For children, storytelling is more than entertainment—it’s a powerful way to connect with identity, language and Country. Through books written in First Languages and created by remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Communities, ILF helps children see themselves reflected in stories that honour their culture and spark joy in learning.

This year’s celebration includes a 17-minute film that journeys through three remote Communities—Ceduna & Koonibba (SA), Katherine & Binjari (NT), and Warakurna (WA)—to share their stories, including insights into the seasons and Dreaming stories. The film will be available to watch on-demand after its premiere.

Following the film, a 45-minute livestream from the Sydney Opera House will feature performances by ILF Ambassadors and special guests, including Jessica Mauboy, Justine Clarke, and Josh Pyke, celebrating the richness of Aboriginal storytelling.

Families, communities and schools can also get involved by:

• Reading ILF-published books with children
• Hosting a Great Book Swap
• Exploring ILF’s resources and early literacy programs.

By supporting Indigenous Literacy Day, we help ensure every child has access to books in their language and stories that reflect their world. You can learn more and access resources on the Indigenous Literacy Foundation’s official website.

Child Protection Week - 7 to 13 September 

National Child Protection Week is held annually with the core message that “protecting children is everyone’s business.” The National Association for Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect (NAPCAN) 2025 theme ‘Every Conversation Matters: Shifting Conversation to Action’ highlights the importance of translating dialogue into meaningful action to create safer environments for children. NAPCAN encourages us to focus on strengthening support systems, and empowering communities to actively protect children.

NAPCAN provides a range of resources on their website, including promotional materials to share the important message of Child Protection Week, training, webinar recordings, research papers, and a range of brochures that are free to download covering topics such as:

• It’s not ok to shake babies
• Keeping children safe from sexual abuse
• Family and domestic violence hurts children too
• Listening to children/ babies/ young people
• When a child feels sad 
• Alternatives to smacking children
• The importance of play

The Department of Communities (Communities) protects and cares for Western Australian children and young people in need, and supports families and individuals who are at risk or in crisis. For more information on child protection at Communities, including children and young people in care, concerns for a child’s safety or wellbeing, and support for parents and families of children and young people, please see the Communities Child Protection webpage.

Wanslea Developmental Milestone Passports

In 2017, Wanslea joined a collective impact project through the Peel Early Years Network, collaborating with stakeholders in the City of Mandurah who identified what families need to better support their child’s development. Consultation and review of the AEDC data identified that parents needed support to understand developmental milestones and promote learning and development for their child. 

The ME@3 passport was developed to help parents support their child’s development before starting Kindergarten. Over the years, different organisations and communities have developed passports for ME@1, ME@2 and ME@4 with consultation and support from Wanslea.

Wanslea is a not-for-profit organisation that delivers the Early Childhood Approach in partnership with the NDIS and offers a variety of programs supporting children and young people. Through these programs, we have developed the passports from 1-5 years to help parents and carers to support their child’s development. Each passport outlines age-appropriate skills for children aged 1,2,3,4 or 5, ensuring they are meeting developmental milestones throughout the year. Where a child is not yet attempting or engaging in the skills, parents and caregivers are provided with practical prompts on how to support their child.

We hope these passports can be printed and implemented in any community. If you have funding available and would like to print passports for your community, please contact Megan Mitchell at mmitchell@wanslea.org.au for more information on printing and branding options.

Parenting Today Survey

How are Australian parents doing right now?

It’s time to find out!. The Parenting Today survey is a national survey that will bring together the voices of 10,000 parents – and you can add your voice to the mix. This is your chance to make sure families just like yours are represented. The survey will capture the experiences, strengths, and support needs of parents and carers across Australia.

This survey will deliver rich, contemporary data to inform policy, programs and investments that support families where it matters most.

If you are a parent or carer to a child aged 0-18 years, you are invited to participate and share your experience of what it is like to be a parent in 2025.

Take the survey now parentingtoday.net.au. Open until 22 August 2025.

Early Years Edit archive

Did you know that previous versions of the Early Years Edit can be found on our website?

Visit Early Years Edit (www.wa.gov.au) to find previous versions of the newsletter and Connecting Early Years Networks (www.wa.gov.au) for general information about the Early Years Networks.

My Community Directory

My Community Directory lists organisations that provide services that are free or subsidised to the public in thousands of locations across Australia. It provides a common platform for Community Services Organisations to list their services online, for free, as well as provide a source of up-to-date data for planning, referral, and research. 

Contact

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