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Understanding The Early Years and The Community Action Plan

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Title: Understanding The Early Years and The Community Action Plan


1
Understanding The Early Years and The Community
Action Plan
  • Michelle Ward,Executive Director - Kids First
    Association
  • Lisa MacRae, Public Health Nurse Antigonish
  • April 7, 2011

2
Understanding The Early Years Pictou Antigonish
Guysborough
  • Pictou Antigonish Guysborough (PAG) initiated the
    Understanding the Early Years project in 2007 and
    was completed in 2010.
  • Community Action Plan (CAP) is developed using
    local research which identifies gaps and provides
    a blueprint for concrete measures the community
    can take to ensure our children are prepared for
    success in school and in life.
  • Early Years Networks are now using the data and
    CAP to develop local responses.

3
Foundational Pieces of UEY
  • Parental Interviews and Direct Assessment of
    Children Survey(PIDACS) - Direct assessment
    results on Grade Primary childrens school
    readiness (PIDACS) and parents perspective on
    family circumstances and children's experiences
  • Early Development Instrument (EDI) - Teachers
    perspectives on the development of Grade Primary
    children
  • Community Mapping report - Local information on
    programs and services and local socioeconomic
    characteristics

4
What is PIDACS ?Parent Inventory Direct
Assessment of Children
  • PIDACS originated from the National Longitudinal
    Survey of Children and Youth (NLSCY).
  • There are two components of PIDACS
  • Three assessments of childrens cognitive
    development. Each assessment is facilitated by a
    trained instructor and completed by the child to
    determine receptive vocabulary (words recognized
    or understood in speech), copying and printing
    skills and number knowledge.
  • A parent interview of about one hour in length,
    covering family, social and economic
    circumstances childrens activities at home,
    community involvement and child behaviour and
    health. Interviews are completed with the person
    most knowledgeable (PMK) of the child.
  • 519 children completed the PIDACS direct
    assessments and 531 parents/guardians were
    interviewed

5
What is Early Development Instrument (EDI)?
  • Designed to provide information for groups of
    children
  • Report on populations of children in different
    communities
  • Assess strengths and deficits in students
  • Predict how children will do in elementary school
  • EDI questionnaires completed on 696 children

6
Five Domains of EDI
  • Physical Health and Wellbeing
  • Social Knowledge Competence
  • Emotional Health Maturity
  • Language Cognitive Development
  • Communication Skills General Knowledge

7
On Track Not on Track
  • Children with EDI scores in the very ready or
    ready percentile groups are considered to be ON
    TRACK.
  • On track is defined as groups of children who
    scored between the 26th and 100th percentiles for
    each EDI domain. These scores indicate higher
    readiness to learn levels.
  •  Children with EDI scores in the at-risk or
    vulnerable percentile groups are considered to be
    NOT ON TRACK.
  • Not on track is defined as groups of children who
    scored below the 26th percentile for each EDI
    domain. These scores indicate lower readiness to
    learn levels.

8
  • Physical Health and Wellbeing
  • gross and fine motor skills
  • holding a pencil
  • running on the playground
  • motor coordination
  • adequate energy levels for classroom activities
  • independence in looking after own needs
  • daily living skills

9
Social Knowledge Competence
  • curiosity about the world/eagerness to try new
    experiences
  • knowledge of standards of acceptable behaviour
  • ability to control own behaviour
  • appropriate respect for adult authority
  • Cooperation / following rules
  • ability to play and work with other children

10
Emotional Health Maturity
  • ability to reflect before acting
  • a balance between too fearful and too impulsive
  • ability to deal with feelings at the
    age-appropriate level
  • empathic response to other people's feelings

11
Language Cognitive Development
  • reading awareness
  • age-appropriate reading and writing skills
  • age-appropriate numeracy skills
  • board games
  • ability to understand similarities and
    differences
  • ability to recite back specific pieces of
    information from memory

12
Communication Skills General Knowledge
  • skills to communicate needs and wants in socially
    appropriate ways
  • symbolic use of language
  • storytelling
  • age-appropriate knowledge about the life and
    world around

13
Community Action Plan (CAP)
  • One of the most important products of the UEY
    project
  • Evidence based document
  • Recommendations designed to support and bolster
    early childhood development in Pictou Antigonish
    Guysborough

14
Community Action Plan Areas for Action
  • 1. Inequality of Outcomes Socio-economic
    Variables
  • 2. What is Happening to Our Boys?
  • 3. Positive Parenting
  • 4. Barriers to participation Underutilization
    of Resources
  • 5. Measuring Our Childrens School Readiness

15
1. Inequality of Outcomes Socio-economic
Variables
  • About 22 of children in PAG are living in
    single-parent families, c.f. 15 Canadian PIDACS
  • The negative effects on childrens outcomes
    arise from the associated challenges of being a
    single-parent (low income, low parental
    education, barriers to participation in the form
    of resources and transportation and increased
    prevalence of depression).
  • When it comes to childrens scores on
    Developmental Skills, Behavioural Outcomes and
    Health Outcomes, the greatest inequality of
    outcomes are associated with low family income,
    the mothers level of education and the sex of
    the child.
  • Children living in families with incomes below
    30,000 per year were more likely to have low
    number knowledge scores and low pre-literacy
    skills. They were also more likely to exhibit
    problems with inattention and have asthma.
  • Children living in families in which the mother
    was unemployed were more likely to exhibit poor
    social behaviour.
  • Children living in families in which the mother
    had not completed secondary school were also
    prone to having poor scores on the three
    cognitive outcomes, as well as having poor
    general health and asthma.
  • Children whose father did not complete secondary
    school were more likely to have low pre-literacy
    skills.

16
2. WHATS HAPPENING TO OUR BOYS? Sex of the
child was among the most prominent variable in
inequality of outcomes. Compared with the girls,
boys were more likely to have poor number
knowledge and pre-literacy skills, exhibit poor
social behaviour and inattention and suffer from
asthma. Boys are far less likely than girls to
self- engage in literacy related
activities. Boys spend more time watching TV
than girls, 1.9 hrs vs. 1.6hrs Parents are
slightly more likely to take boys outside to play
(36 c.f. 31 for girls) Boys are more involved
in organized (1.4 times per week) and unorganized
sports (4.9 times per week), girls 1.1 and 4.2
times per week respectively Boys were more
likely than girls to use ice rinks/skiing
facilities, 64 c.f. 52 In terms of school
readiness (EDI), girls are more ready to learn
than boys across all domains.
17
3. Parenting
  • Only 49 of the families displayed a positive or
    authoritative parenting style, which is defined
    as having an equal balance of love, support and
    authority.  This is below the Canadian PIDACS
    average of 56.  
  • In contrast, 13 of the families displayed
    permissive parenting style (high on love and
    support, but low on authority), comparable to 9
    for Canadian PIDACS average.
  • Percentages of Authoritarian and Neglectful were
    comparable.
  • Families in which the father was unemployed were
    less likely to demonstrate authoritative
    parenting (38).
  • Unemployed mothers have more of a challenge
    accessing programs for their children if theyre
    not available nearby.
  • Children in low-income families (66) or in which
    the mother had not completed secondary school
    (57) were less likely to be read to at least
    once a day.

18
  • Some more factors influencing parenting
  • In three of the eight parent-child interactive
    daily activities, PAG parents were less engaged
    than Canadian parents as a whole. These
    activities included taking the child out to play,
    teaching the child to print letters and numbers,
    and playing cards or board games. 
  • The exception parental engagement to teach words
    was above average (69 c.f. Canadian PIDACS
    average of 63). This reflects EDI Language
    Cognitive Development results as well.
  • In general, when comparing PAG parents
    engagement to Canada PIDACS they are more likely
    to teach words, watch television or sing songs.
    They are significantly less likely to take their
    kids outside to play. For example, Takes him or
    her outside to play 33 versus 47 Canadian
    PIDACS.
  • Another exception our kids are more self-engaged
    in literacy-related activities.

19
4.Barriers to Participation Underutilization
of Resources   
  • programs not available at convenient times (51)
  • programs only available to older children (50)
  • there was not enough time to participate(42)
  • programs not available nearby (42)
  • 41 of parents said that they were unaware such
    services were available
  • Inconvenient times and not enough time were more
    of a barrier to employed parents.
  • Unemployed mothers had more of a challenge if
    programs were not available nearby.
  • Forty percent reported too expensive as a
    barrier, this is higher than the 34 in the
    Canadian PIDACS average.
  • Twenty-seven percent cited transportation as a
    barrier, also significantly higher than the
    comparison population (18)

20
5. Measuring Our Childrens School Readiness
Children in PAG score slightly lower across all
developmental domains than the control cohort,
except in language cognitive development. On
the Multiple Challenge Index, when a child scores
low on 9 or more of the 16 sub-domains, 5.3 of
PAG kids compared with 3.9 Normative
II. Tri-County Overview Physical Health
Wellbeing 28 NOT ON TRACK Social Knowledge
Competence 36 NOT ON TRACK Emotional Health
Maturity 36 NOT ON TRACK Language
Cognitive Development 12 NOT ON
TRACK Communication Skills General Knowledge
38 NOT ON TRACK Tri-County Comparison Percentag
e of vulnerable children (scoring in lowest 10th
percentile on one or more scales) Pictou 24.2,
Antigonish 24.7, Guysborough 32.6
21
Early Years Networks
  • Reviewed the Community Action Plan
  • What could we do in response to the data/action
    plan?
  • Guysborough Early Years Network has been actively
    engaged in creating collaborative spaces for
    program delivery
  • Guysborough Early Years Network planned a 2-4
    year check in. Held October 2010
  • Antigonish Early Years Network planned a Early
    Years Wellness Day. Held March 23, 2011
  • Strait Richmond planning a Wellness day May 2011

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  • Questions?
  • Community Input
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