It takes a child to raise a village

1
It takes a child to raise a village

• How societies
• understand and apply
• their knowledge
• of human development
• will determine the kind of cultures,
• societies, civilizations
• that are created.

2
Families

• Families are the basic social units of human
  societies.

3
of Mothers Who Work by Age of Youngest Child,
Canada, 1976-2004

4
Pluralism

• Canada relies on a steady influx of young
  newcomers to stem its population decline.
• Immigration accounts for two thirds of population
  growth.

5
Population Growth of Infants (0 to 5) in Canada,
by Region, 1999-2005 ()
Alberta
Population Growth in Infants ()
Ontario
Manitoba
British Columbia
Quebec
Saskatchewan
Atlantic Canada
6
Developing Regions

• More than 20 of
• Africas 20 million children
• are at a very high risk
• for poor development.

7
Aboriginal Exclusion

• The UN ranked Canada as number 1 for quality of
  life.
• The UN ranked aboriginal peoples living on
  reserve as number 62.

8
Pluralism

• Successful societies are pluralistic.
• ECD affects education, health, the social
• capital, and the overall equity
• within populations.

9
Integrated ECD Programs
Behaviour
Equality
Learning
Health
Social Economic
Development
10
How are children doing?

• What gets measured improves and what gets
  measured gets attention
• Charles S. Coffey

11
Assessment

• Community initiatives and public policies aimed
  at improving outcomes for children can be
  supported by suitable outcome measures.
• Reliable data and analysis can provide direction
  to public policy development.
• Regular assessment and reporting on initiatives
  is an important component of democratic
  accountability.

12
Outcome measures

• Community initiatives
• public policies
• aimed at improving
• outcomes for children
• can be supported
• by suitable outcome measures.

13
Monitoring development

• Longitudinal surveys
• birth cohort studies
• allow researchers
• policy makers
• to monitor
• childrens development.

14
Public policy

• Reliable data analysis
• can provide direction
• to public policy
• development.

15
Democratic accountability

• Regular assessment reporting
• on initiatives
• is an important component
• of democratic accountability.

16
Receptive Vocabulary, Age 5 (NLSCY, 2002-03)
Source Thomas, 2006
17
Social competence, Age 5 (NLSCY, 2002-03)
Source Thomas, 2006
18
¼ of children

• ¼ of Canadas children between birth to age 6 are
  experiencing some learning or behavioural
  difficulty.

19
Vulnerable children by family income
of children
40
30
20
10
0
Lower-middle
Upper-middle
Highest
Lower
Family income
Source Chao and Willms, 2002
20
Socioeconomic status

• Where families fit on the economic ladder
  contributes to childrens developmental outcomes.
• But income is not the whole story.
• Many children in low-income families are doing
  just fine, and some children living in affluence
  are not doing well.

21
Vulnerable children by parenting style
Authoritative
Permissive
Authoritarian
Chaotic
of Children
Source Chao and Willms, 2002
22
Participation in ECE Activities at Age 3 ()
Source Thomas, 2006
23
Vocabulary Scores at Age 5 by Participation in
ECE Activities at Age 3
PPVT (vocabulary) score
Source Thomas, 2006
24
Later difficulties

• These problems in the early years
• have been shown to correlate
• with later difficulties in
• school performance,
• social adjustment
• and health.

25
Measuring ECD Before Grade 1

• Readiness to learn tests
• in kindergarten
• can predict 60 or more
• of the variance
• in Grade 3 tests.

26
The Early Development Instrument

• Assesses community outcomes in child development
  in respect to
• health
• learning
• behaviour

27
Measuring ECD Before Grade 1

• Readiness to learn tests
• in kindergarten
• can predict 60 or more
• of the variance
• in Grade 3 tests.

28
The Early Development Instrument (EDI)

• Assesses community outcomes in child development
  in respect to
• health
• learning
• behaviour

29
EDI characteristics

• completed by kindergarten teachers based on
  several months of observation
• Reliable at an individual leveldoes not provide
  diagnosis of developmental problems
• population level measureresults can be
  interpreted for groups of children.
• results used to identify weak strong community
  sectors
• results used by communities to mobilize for
  improved child outcomes

48
30
5 domains of the EDI

• Physical health and well-being
• Social competence
• Emotional maturity
• Language and cognitive development
• Communication skills general knowledge

49
31
Canada Children with Low EDI Scores by SES
51
Source Offord Centre for Child Studies, 2007
32
Community reporting

• Community reporting
• assesses how well
• children are doing
• within their environmental context
• the impact of local programs.

33
Community reporting

• suggests some associated factors
• can be used to determine resource allocation and
  set benchmarks for improvements.
• track progress within and between communities.

34
Community reporting

• By measuring, analyzing, and interpreting this
  data, we can modify outcomes reduce gaps among
  different groups of children.
• Ongoing monitoring indicates if advances are
  being made.

35
Neighbourhood comparison North York ON, 1999
36
Cross-Canada comparisons

• The Offord Centre has compared EDI in Montreal,
  Toronto, Winnipeg, Vancouver.
• Geographically aggregated census data are
  correlated with the childrens neighbourhood
  location via postal code.

37
Later difficulties

• These problems in the early years
• have been shown to correlate
• with later difficulties in
• school performance,
• social adjustment
• and health.

52
38
Social Risk Index

• Socio-economic status is determined by the
  use of the Social Risk Index (SRI),
  a composite index based on
  nine socio-economic
  indicators of risk.

39
Social Risk Index

• 9 comprehensive indicators of social risk
• those with rate higher than the national average
  contributing to the overall risk
• zero (0), indicating no social risk
• nine (9) indicating the highest risk

40
SRI 9 indicators

• Rate of households with a low-income status
• Unemployment rate
• Proportion of individuals without a high school
  diploma
• Proportion of families with children headed by a
  lone parent
• Proportion of the population with no knowledge of
  either English or French
• Rate of recent immigration (1996 to 2001)
• Rate of those moving in the past year
• Rate of home ownership
• Proportion of income from Government Transfer
  payments

41
Vulnerability

• Because of the size
• of the middle class,
• the largest number
• (rather than the highest )
• of children with serious difficulties
• are in moderate income families.