Early Abilities Based Learning and Education Support (Early ABLES)

An online tool that helps early childhood educators provide tailored learning for children with additional needs.

Early ABLES supports early childhood educators to provide a more individualised learning experience for children aged two to five years with disabilities and/or developmental delay.

The Early ABLES suite has been expanded to include three new assessments for use from 2021, which will support educators to:

  • observe and assess a child’s progress in learning
  • develop appropriate learning goals in collaboration with parents/carers and other professionals
  • develop an individualised learning plan with evidence-informed teaching and learning strategies
  • monitor progress along with a likely progression of learning
  • support the development of an individual child’s learning program using the Early Years Planning Cycle
  • improve the transition from early childhood to school through information sharing.

There are now eight Early ABLES assessments that align with the five Learning and Development Outcomes of the Victorian Early Years Learning and Development Framework (PDF, 1MB) (VEYLDF).

The eight Early ABLES assessments are:

  • Identity and Community – Social
  • Wellbeing – Emotion
  • Learning Dispositions
  • Communication – Interactions
  • Communication – Symbols and Text
  • Learning and Communication – Numeracy
  • Wellbeing – Movement
  • Identity and Learning – Thinking Skills

Access to Early ABLES

To access Early ABLES visit Early ABLES.(opens in a new window)

Change of access to Early ABLES in 2022

Early ABLES has moved to a new IT platform called Ruby. The current Early ABLES platform is no longer available. All historic data has been migrated over to the new Ruby platform.

Current users of Early ABLES have received information about the Early ABLES migration from the earlyables@education.vic.gov.au email address. New users of Early ABLES in 2022 will have access to the new platform.

The way early childhood services access Early ABLES from 2022 will be different. Services will have received a login email in January 2022 from the University of Melbourne and will be asked to add the educators using Early ABLES at their service. This will provide educators with access to commence using Early ABLES in February 2022.

The new platform has been designed by the University of Melbourne to create a more robust and intuitive experience of assessment for its users and improve data security.

Professional learning

Free online professional learning is available for early childhood educators using Early ABLES with children in their early childhood service.

It contributes up to five hours to the Victorian Institute of Teaching’s annual professional learning requirement of 20 hours. The five hours includes time to:

  • complete the online professional learning
  • reflect on the learning
  • plan for implementation into practice.

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