Helping children develop
An initiative to improve the development of children in their most formative years is sparking solutions across Central Alberta communities.
Alberta Education’s Early Child Development Mapping Initiative — a province wide, five-year research project activity looking at the factors that may influence healthy child development — began in 2009.
Since that time, information about young children has been gathered across Alberta.
It includes socio-economic information as well as data from the Early Development Initiative.
The EDI, a questionnaire completed by kindergarten teachers with parents’ consent, describes development in five areas.
They are social competence, language and thinking skills, physical health and well-being, emotional maturity and communication skills and general knowledge.
Laurie Lafortune, community development co-ordinator for ECMap project in Central Alberta, said the most startling discovery is that about 27 per cent of Alberta kindergarten-aged children have great difficulty in one or more developmental area.
“People are coming to a real clear understanding that the most critical years for a child’s development are the years before school, from prenatal up to age five,” said Lafortune.
“Hopefully we can help communities provide what the children need and support families to do so.”
Communities have been receiving their data at various times. They can then plan responses to what they’re seeing, said Lafortune.
She works with 12 early childhood development coalitions, made up of people who have a passion in seeing their children and others reach their full potential through early learning.
Each community had the opportunity to apply for provincial grants so they can implement changes.
Erin Stauffer, co-ordinator for the Stettler and County Early Childhood Development Coalition, said their report came out last fall and now they’re raising community awareness and seeking involvement as well.
“We just want to help parents know what resources are available and help develop the five developmental areas,” said Stauffer.
For instance, it’s hoped that a booklet would be created for parents who need help to improve physical development in their child.
“We’re hoping to develop a website that parents can go to and find resources in our area that would link them to helping their children’s physical development,” said Stauffer.
By having increased development in each of these areas, children should be more prepared for kindergarten.
Having that community involvement and awareness is so important too, Stauffer added.
Susan Lynch, director of Early Child Development Mapping Project Alberta, said this community-based research is being looked at through a variety of lenses, including geography. Some children may be developing well in one area as opposed to another area.
“Over the five years, we will have data on about 80,000 children and those children range in age from 4 1/2 to 6 1/2, just coming out of their early childhood years,” said Lynch.
Lynch said the information will be put onto maps so that a wide range of groups, like school districts, can have access.
“We’re almost at the point where we can put all of our interactive maps up,” said Lynch. “They can zoom right into their own community and a lot of detail pops up as you get closer in. Our plan is to put all that early childhood development data on those maps.”
By the time the project is done, it should be a very rich resource for people to build on, Lynch said.
The Early Child Development Mapping Project for Alberta shows the following for Central Alberta.
• Stettler County data from 2011 — Although the majority of children are developing appropriately, a large percentage are experiencing difficulty or great difficulty, particularly in communication skills and general knowledge (36.3 per cent), social competence (35.3 per cent) and language and thinking skills (32.4 per cent).
• Clearwater County using data from 2010 and 2012 — Although the majority of children are developing appropriately, a large percentage are experiencing difficulty or great difficulty, particularly in communication skills and general knowledge (29.8 per cent).
In Clearwater County, 24.3 per cent of kindergarten children are experiencing great difficulty in one or more areas of development as compared to 26.9 per cent of kindergarten children in Alberta and 25.4 per cent in Canada.
• East Red Deer County using data from 2009 and 2010 — Although the majority of the children are developing appropriately, a large percentage are experiencing difficulty or great difficulty, particularly in emotional maturity (40.5 per cent) and communication skills and general knowledge (33.3 per cent). In East Red Deer County, 31 per cent of kindergarten children are experiencing great difficulty in one or more areas of development as compared to 25.4 per cent of kindergarten children of Canada.
• Innisfail using data from 2009, 2010 and 2012 — Although the majority of children are developing appropriately, a large percentage
are experiencing difficulty or great difficulty, particularly in communication skills and general knowledge (33.7 percent) and language and thinking skills (30.2 per cent). In Innisfail, 29.7 per cent of kindergarten children are experiencing great difficulty in one or more areas of
development as compared to 27 per cent of kindergarten children in Alberta and 25.4 per cent in Canada.
• Lacombe County using data from 2009, 2010 and 2011 — Although the majority of children in Lacombe County are developing
appropriately, a large percentage are experiencing difficulty or great difficulty, particularly in emotional maturity (30 per cent) and language and thinking skills (28.5 per cent).
• Red Deer and Area using data from 2009, 2010 and 2011 — Although the majority of children are developing appropriately, a large percentage are experiencing difficulty or great difficulty, particularly in communication skills and general knowledge (20.6 per cent).
• Rimbey and Area using data from 2010, 2011 and 2012 — Although the majority of children are developing appropriately, a large percentage are experiencing difficulty or great difficulty, particularly in language and thinking skills (28 per cent) and emotional maturity (22 percent). In Rimbey and area, 21 per cent of kindergarten children are experiencing great difficulty in one or more areas of development as compared to 27 percent of kindergarten children in Alberta and 25.4 per cent in Canada.
• Sylvan Lake and Area using data from 2009-2012 — Although the majority of children in Sylvan Lake and area are developing appropriately, a large percentage are experiencing difficulty or great difficulty, particularly in communication skills and general knowledge (41.3 percent). In Sylvan Lake and area, 26.5 per cent of kindergarten children are experiencing great difficulty in one or more areas of development as compared to 27 per cent of kindergarten children in Alberta and 25.4 per cent in Canada.
• West County Red Deer using data from 2009-2012 — Although the majority of children are developing appropriately, a large percentage are experiencing difficulty or great difficulty, particularly in language and thinking skills (34 per cent). In West Red Deer County, 26 percent of kindergarten children are experiencing great difficulty in one or more areas of development as compared to 27 per cent of kindergarten children in Alberta and 25.4 per cent in Canada.
ltester@reddeeradvocate.com
COMMENTS
Let's keep comments:
We ask that all participants own their words by logging in with their Facebook account. It's a simple process that will take seconds and helps keep our comments free of trolls, cranks, and “drive-by” commenters.
We reserve the right to remove comments from anyone using screen names, pseudonyms or false identities. Please see our FAQ if you have questions or concerns about using Facebook to comment.