Understanding The Early Years and The Community Action Plan

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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

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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.

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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

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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

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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

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Five Domains of EDI

• Physical Health and Wellbeing
• Social Knowledge Competence
• Emotional Health Maturity
• Language Cognitive Development
• Communication Skills General Knowledge

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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.

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• 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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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.

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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.
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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.

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• 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.

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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)

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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
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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