Children in Centretown face a persistent vulnerability to developmental problems, according to the Early Development Instrument.
The EDI is a population-based measurement tool that is used as an indicator of senior kindergarten students’ developmental health and readiness to learn at school entry, conducted at elementary schools across Ontario on a three-year basis.
The domain of highest vulnerability in Centretown is physical health and well-being with almost 24 per cent of children achieving few or none of the developmental expectations for their age.
The area of lowest development within this domain is gross and fine motor skills, where the EDI revealed that almost 38 per cent of children weren’t developing properly.
Parent and caregiver playgroups have been created as a direct response to the EDI results in Centretown, according to Danielle Labelle, a Parent-Child Resource Worker with the Centretown Community Health Centre.
“All of these play groups have activities that are geared towards early learning, and children are playing without even noticing that they are learning concepts, like various fine motors skills for example,” says Labelle.
These skills include the ability to hold pencils and crayons, ability to manipulate objects, climb stairs, and their overall physical development.
The EDI measures a child’s growth in five domains: communication skills and general knowledge, language and cognitive development, emotional maturity, social competence, and physical health and wellbeing.
“That information can contribute to change policy in terms of health, in terms of education, and even parenting to ensure that fewer problems show up later in life,” says Janus.
The EDI data is based on observations by senior kindergarten teachers of children in their class, collected through a survey.
“We didn’t want this to be a test, it had to be based on observation in order to include cognitive areas, but also physical, social and emotional,” says Magdalena Janus, the Ontario chair in Early Child Development and co-developer of the EDI.
It can be considered an accurate data tool, but not an individual diagnostic one, according to Communications Officer Sharlene Hunter of the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board.
“EDI data needs to be looked at in conjunction with the local knowledge and the local evidence and expertise,” says Janus.
Some causes could be a high percentage of families living in high-rise apartments with limited access to green or recreational spaces, according to Janus.
Roughly 60 per cent of the Centretown population lives in high-rise apartments, more than triple the Ottawa average of 18 per cent, according to the Ottawa Neighbourhood Study.
Additionally, there are a total of 33 recreational sites in Centretown, compared with an average of 42 per neighbourhood across Ottawa, according to the Ottawa Neighbourhood Study.
“A child was found with very low gross motor skills, and they found out that basically this child, at three years of age, spent most of his days in an apartment, with a grandparent,” Janus says.
This could result in developmental problems in the domain of physical health and wellness because children could be less likely or have less opportunity to go outside to play, according to Janus.
“I think a lot of the time we forget about these families that are starting school, that are facing so many challenges, that these things aren’t a priority for them. They are thinking ‘I need a home. I need to feed my kids’, so they’re too overwhelmed,” says Labelle.
EDI results provided by the public schools in Ottawa have been compiled and analyzed by the Ottawa Parent Resource Centre for the past three cycles.
The next EDI results can be expected later this year, according to Catherine Miller, Data Analysis Coordinator with the Ottawa Parent Resource Centre.