One in four kids not ready for school, renowned educator notes
The Daily Bulletin - Kimberley / The Daily Townsman
November 23, 2006
By: Gerry Warner

EXCERPT

A drop in early childhood development scores has been noted for East Kootenay kindergarten students.

This sobering news was delivered at a recent child development conference attended by a large group of early learning professionals in Kimberley. Using a statistical tool called the Early Development Instrument, Dr. Clyde Hertzman, director of the Early Development Instrument (EDI), Hertzman has been measuring the school readiness of East Kootenay children since 2003.

The EDI is a checklist that kindergarten teachers complete for each child in class. It measures physical health and well-being, social competence emotional maturity, language and cognitive development, communication skills and general literacy.

By mapping the school readiness of children, it's possible to identify the influence of socio-economic and community factors on child development. The EDI can also be used to measure changes over time.

Since the last report in 2004, the number of vulnerable children which score in the bottom 10 per cent in the East Kootenay region, has increased by 6.2 per cent.

The highest proportion of vulnerable children was in Golden with 34 per cent, which represents a 20 per cent increase over 2004. The lowest proportion was in Windermere at 11.6 per cent, which was a decrease of six per cent.

"Declines in children's readiness for kindergarten in the area are relatively large and the trend for increases in the number of vulnerable children in Cranbrook north and east and Golden are shocking," said Hertzman.

Jacqueline Pinsonneault, regional coordinator for Success by Six, a provincial early childhood development initiative, said she agreed.

"I'm certainly not an expert in early childhood development but I am a parent of a pre-schooler and these results are startling. We know we need to invest in our children early to ensure they have a head start in school and in life. But one in four children aren't ready for school.

"We can't let these statistics rest in the hands of our teachers. We all have to play a role in making our communities better places to raise our children."...