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Australian Early Development Census

Multiple Strength Indicator 2015AEDC Community Summary for Mount Isa, QLD

ContentsAccessible file format statement 2Multiple Strength Indicator 2015 3Characteristics of children in each of the MSI categories 3About the Multiple Strength Indicator 4Copyright and other information 7

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AEDC Community Summary: Multiple Strength Indicator 2015 Page 2 of 7

Multiple Strength Indicator 2015The Multiple Strength Indicator (MSI) is a summary indicator that measures developmental strengths in social and emotional development such as self-control, pro-social skills, respectful behaviour towards peers, teachers and property, and curiosity about the world. The indicator also includes children who have advanced literacy skills, a particular interest in reading, numeracy and memory, and very good communication skills.

Note on resultsIn this document, figures may not add up to 100% due to rounding. Results for children with diagnosed special needs are not included.

Characteristics of children in each of the MSI categories

Table 1: Characteristics of children in each of the MSI categories ‘highly developed strengths’, ‘well developed strengths’ and ‘emerging strengths’.

Characteristic DefinitionHighly developed strengths

Children have strengths in most of the 39 MSI items. These children are likely to be on track on all five AEDC domains, and show strengths across all AEDC domains.

Well developed strengths

Children are showing strengths in 50-70% of the following skills: relating to peers and teachers, self-control, curiosity about the world, working independently, reading and writing simple words, communicating effectively with peers and teachers, and story-telling.

Emerging strengths

Children may be meeting developmental expectations when they start school but they do not demonstrate a high number of strengths. Children in this category range from those with strengths in none of the 39 MSI items, to children with strengths in about half of the MSI items.

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Table 2: Children with valid scores, by MSI category (n and %).

Geography Hig

hly

deve

lope

d st

reng

ths

(n)

Hig

hly

deve

lope

d st

reng

ths

( %)

Wel

l dev

elop

ed

stre

ngth

s(n

)W

ell d

evel

oped

st

reng

ths

(%)

Emer

ging

st

reng

ths

(n)

Emer

ging

st

reng

ths

(n)

Tota

l(n

)

Mount Isa 179 51.3 76 21.8 94 26.9 349

QLD 30,656 49.3 14,658 23.6 16,806 27.1 62,120

National 159,942 55.8 64,639 22.5 62,195 21.7 286,776

About the Multiple Strength Indicator

What is the Multiple Strength Indicator?The Multiple Strength Indicator (MSI) is a measure of children’s developmental strengths when they start their first year of full-time school.

It uses questions from the Australian version of the Early Development Instrument (AvEDI), the Instrument used in the Australian Early Development Census (AEDC)1 and focuses on the more advanced skills, competencies, and dispositions to explore how many ‘strengths’ children have at school entry.

1 http://www.aedc.gov.au/abtdata

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Rather than presenting information on each of the domains individually, the MSI combines selected information from all five domains2 of child development providing an important summary of children’s strengths. Two other summary indicators that are reported through the AEDC program are – ‘developmentally vulnerable on one or more domains’ and ‘developmentally vulnerable on two or more domains’.

What is the difference between the Multiple Strength Indicator and the other AEDC summary indicators?There is a difference between the MSI and the two other AEDC summary indicators. The MSI focuses on the strengths that children have developed by the time they start school. In contrast, the other indicators show whether children are facing challenges in their development. Communities can use the information provided by the MSI in addition to the other indicators to inform planning.

Children with special needs A child requiring special assistance because of chronic medical, physical, or intellectually disabling conditions (e.g. Autism, Cerebral palsy, Down syndrome) based on a medical diagnosis or diagnoses is classified as having special needs in the AEDC. Results for the children with diagnosed special needs are not included in the results because of the already identified substantial developmental needs of this group. Table 4 of your Community Profile provides the number and percentage of children included in the AEDC in your community with special needs status.

Selection of the Multiple Strengths items A group of early childhood experts reviewed the 96 items in the AvEDI to determine which items provided an indication of whether a child showed advanced skills, or ‘better than expected development’, for his or her age. A total of 39 questions were identified and the MSI was calculated using these items.

2 http://www.aedc.gov.au/abtdom

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How is the Multiple Strength Indicator calculated? MSI scores are calculated for each individual child where enough valid scores3 have been recorded through the AvEDI. Children receive a score between 0 and 39 on the MSI, higher scores indicate that the child has strengths in more of the 39 items. Using the 2009 AEDC data, the following cut-off scores (or benchmarks) were established for the MSI to classify children into one of three categories, based on the number of strengths they exhibited:

Highly developed strengths – children with strengths in 28 to 39 of the MSI items (above the 50th percentile in 2009)

Well developed strengths – children with strengths in 19 to 27 of the MSI items (25th to 50th percentile in 2009)

Emerging strengths – children with strengths in 18 or less of the MSI items (below 25th percentile in 2009).

The cut-off scores set in 2009 provide a reference point against which later MSI results can be compared. These will remain the same for future cycles.

Further reading AEDC Factsheet: About the Multiple Strength Indicator 4

Research Snapshot: Taking a strengths based approach to child development   in the AEDC: the Multiple Strength Indicator 5

Technical Report: Multiple Strength Indicator 6 AEDC National Report 2015 .7

3 http://www.aedc.gov.au/defterm4 http://www.aedc.gov.au/fact-sht-msi5 http://www.aedc.gov.au/res-snap-msi6 http://www.aedc.gov.au/tech-rep-msi7 http://www.aedc.gov.au/natrep15

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Copyright and other information©2016 Commonwealth of Australia.

Since 2002, the Australian Government has worked in partnership with eminent child health research institutes, Centre for Community Child Health, Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne, and the Telethon Kids Institute, Perth to deliver the Australian Early Development Index programme to communities nationwide. On 1 July 2014, the Australian Early Development Index (AEDI) programme became known as the Australian Early Development Census (AEDC), and was launched through a new website www.aedc.gov.au. The Australian Government continues to work with its partners, and with state and territory governments to implement the AEDC.

For official use only:

1617-SRC-01 AEDC 1609-001-ACCCo-ID: 30077

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