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• Aspects
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• Demographics
• Age groups
  • Infancy (<1 yr)
  • Toddlers (1-4)
  • Early childhood (5-9)
    • Trends
    • Table: summary
  • Middle childhood (10-14)
  • Adolescence (15-17)
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• Glossary

From five to nine years of age children become more independent and develop greater self-confidence and a stronger sense of identity.

At five most kids start school. Friends are increasingly important to them and their peer group becomes a greater influence in their lives. They tend to play mostly with children of the same sex.

Their need for greater challenges, more space and a variety of places to do things increases. Kids in this age group enjoy playing sport and taking part in other activities. They like to take risks and to test their abilities and boundaries. Neighbourhood parks and other community areas become favourite play spaces.

By the end of this period children have the capacity to solve increasingly complex problems and express complex ideas. They are likely to have early skills in reading, writing and maths and may already be developing preferences for different subject areas.

Based on the limited data available, Kids Stats builds a picture of the situation of our children in early childhood. Kids Stats monitors:

• Parental employment
• Domestic violence
• Child abuse
• Serious injury
• Death due to transport fatalities, drowning and fatal assault