Playing for keeps; Day-care quality can determine a child's success in school
North Shore News
22 Apr 2007
By: James Weldon

Kids at Capilano College Child Care Centre have spent many happy hours this year drawing wolves.

The pictures they come up with vary widely, but they are all focused on the same animal, and especially on its power. The project, which was largely their idea, is a simple one, but it is helping to groom them for success later in life.

In recent years, it has become increasingly clear that the environment offered to children in their first few years can play a major role in shaping them as adults. Most child-care services now shape their programs with that in mind, focusing on active engagement in creative projects like the Capilano College centre's wolves. But a desperate shortage of day-care spaces on the North Shore and often-exorbitant fees mean these opportunities aren't accessible to all children, so not all are reaching school on the same footing.

The idea that school success can be determined at day care, while relatively new to policy makers, is hardly a novel concept to those who work in the field.

"Child care is early learning, there is no distinction," said June Maynard, manager of the child-care resources and referral program at the North Shore Community Resources Society. "Programs are built around that."

Early learning has been a part of child-care training for 35 years or more, said Maynard. A well-run program helps develop language skills, social skills, basic literacy, mathematical concepts and other tools invaluable in formal education.

While approaches vary, the basic concept is widespread. At the Capilano College centre, the learning process is structured very much around the children's own interests and ideas....

Exercises like this one foster skills ranging from speech and language to listening, observation, motor skills and co-operation, said Mistry. All are vital to success in formal education.

And it's not just her imagination, according to those who have studied the issue. The connection between this type of learning and success in school is difficult to dispute, said Dr. Paul Kershaw, a professor at UBC's Human Early Learning Partnership, a research organization specializing in childhood development.

"The data is really clear: if there are quality programs (available), that matters," said Kershaw. "If the child care services are poor quality, the services are not . . . going to be doing anything for the kids in terms of preparing them for school."

Problems can arise when a child winds up spending more time with a television than engaged with other people, he said. That can happen when both parents are busy and have no access to child care. ...

On the North Shore, neighbourhoods ranged from Dollarton, where just 8.1 per cent of kids were considered vulnerable, to Lower Lonsdale, where 33.3 per cent fell into that category. While some of the discrepancy can be tied to economics -- studies often link wealth to academic achievement -- it's not an explanation by itself, said Kershaw. Relatively affluent Deep Cove, for instance, showed a vulnerability rate of more than 29 per cent.

The differences point to relative availability of inexpensive child care and other social programs, he said. "There are tremendous shortages," said Kershaw. In British Columbia, only about 20 per cent of children of the relevant age have access to day care, while 75 per cent of parents with children of that age report needing it. Unless recent cuts to federal and provincial day care funding are reversed, the discrepancy will remain, he said.

The investment would make sense: if the government were to put money toward opening more affordable high-quality day care spaces, it would reap the benefits further down the road, said Kershaw.

"We need to take those economic analyses seriously," he said. "Are there ways we can get a bigger bang for our dollar?"