5. Amplifying the early years – Leaders' Day library

5.1 – Siraj I (2023) Submission to the SA Royal Commission into Early childhood education and Care, 2023

Read the Submission to the SA Royal Commission into Early childhood education and Care

Professor Iram Siraj’ssubmission is based on findings from a British longitudinal EPPSE study (1997 – 2014) where children who had attended preschool were monitored from 3 years of age to 6 months after leaving compulsory education, with a control sample of children with no preschool. Findings included that:

prolonged participation in high quality preschool has positive long-term effects on self-regulation and pro-social behaviour
prolonged participation in high quality preschool can act as a protective factor for disadvantaged children
longer duration of preschool attendance (in months) is beneficial, but the mode of attendance (part time or full time) has no effect
high quality preschool is a predictor of good pre-reading skills and reduced anti-social/worried behaviour at entry to school
low quality preschool has no benefit when compared with no preschool
high quality preschool continues to predict better self-regulation and pro-social behaviour at age 14
high quality preschools model, encourage and extend ‘sustained shared thinking’
ongoing parental engagement is more important than formative feedback to children.

"Research has shown that preschool can help to ameliorate some of the disadvantages of growing up in poverty or in households where parents have poor levels of qualifications or provide little intellectual stimulation. It cannot however, do this in isolation. To improve outcomes for children they need supportive families with stimulating home learning environments, high quality preschool followed by effective primary and secondary school." (Siraj I. 2023)

5.2 – Howells S, et al. (2022) Rapid review of the literature and results of an academic pulse survey to determine the evidence behind pre-school for 3-year-old children

Read the commission report: Rapid review of the literature and results of an academic pulse survey to determine the evidence behind pre-school for 3-year-old children.

This report was commissioned by the Royal Commission into Early Childhood Education and Care in South Australia. It provides review of the most recent literature and surveys active eminent academics from across the world to determine their current views on the status of the evidence. As such, this report summarise what is known and not known and identify where further research in the Australian context is needed. It details a range of sometimes conflicting research findings on preschool programs impacts including:

evidence of benefits is strongest for cognitive domains, for part-time programs of 2-3 years duration
higher program dose and duration has been linked to potential adverse socioemotional outcomes in some studies, but not in others
quality of the child/carer relationship is shown in some studies to be more predictive of developmental outcomes at 4-5 and 6-7 years of age than qualification of the carer, but not in others
more commonly, longitudinal cross-sectional or cohort studies of large-scale programs have found only small size effects which can demonstrate fade out where the positive effects of 3-year-old children attending pre-kindergarten on children’s academic and cognitive skills become smaller and sometimes disappear by the third grade of primary school
the proposed mechanisms underlying the observed fade out of effects include study methodologies, interventions lacking the strength and quality of supports to persist, subsequent primary education failing to support the gains, or non-preschool attendees catching up
more recent studies trying to understand these apparently contradictory findings has found evidence which supports high quality programs as the most critical factor for positive outcomes, with the greatest benefits for children with disadvantaged backgrounds
there is substantial evidence supports participation in targeted programs for disadvantaged and minority group children being associated with lasting positive effects of improved educational, economic and social outcomes in adulthood
successful scaling up of intensive high quality targeted programs has proven elusive
there is strong evidence for large positive child development effects from well-developed and supported parenting programs
it did not find any high-quality evaluations to compare the differential impact of early childhood education being delivered through family day care, long day care providers or preschool, on developmental outcomes
when considering the strong evidence behind the importance of high quality and intensity, services should be externally monitored to ensure that programs are effectively delivered and are faithful to their intended design with appropriate quality standards.

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“Human development economists view early childhood as the most cost-effective time in life to invest in social services for future economic returns”. (Howells, S. et al., 2022)

“SES of the child’s family at age 5 was the only variable that predicted the transition from a lower to higher engagement in learning profile” (Howells, S. et al., 2022)

5.3 – SA Child Development Council (2022), How are they faring? SA 2022 Report Card for Children and Young People, Government of South Australia

Read the report: How are they faring? SA 2022 Report Card for Children and Young People

This is the third report of population-level outcomes for children and young people from birth to 18 years under South Australia's Outcomes Framework for Children and Young People (framework). The data reported under the framework’s five legislated dimensions – health, safety, wellbeing, education and citizenship, is to be used to provide an evidence-base that informs strategies, objectives, policies and funding decisions.

In the Wellbeing and Education dimension for early years children, the report found that:

114,739 (31.6 %) of our 363,100 children and young people were 0-5 years old with 4,600 (4%) being Aboriginal
24% of children are developmentally vulnerable in 1 or more domains when starting school
the proportion of 4-year-old children enrolled in a quality preschool program declined from 88.9% in 2017 to 84.1% in 2021, nationally the proportion has been stable at 85%
the proportion of Aboriginal 4-year-old children enrolled in quality preschool increased from 88.4% in 2017 to 90.4% in 2021
the proportion of Aboriginal 3-year-old children enrolled in a quality preschool program declined from 84.1 % to 81.5% between 2017 and 2021.

“National comparison shows that, proportionally, more children and young people under 20 years live in disadvantaged socio-economic circumstances in South Australia. In 2021, more than half of all children and young people (53.6%) lived in disadvantaged socio-economic circumstances, compared to 38.9% nationally. Of these, 26% lived with the most disadvantage (19.3% nationally).” (SA Child Development Council, 2022)