1 UEY Red Deer Preliminary Results Research Forum: December 1, 2009 The School Readiness of Red Deer’s Kindergarten Children: A Preliminary Report on the Results of the Early Development Instrument (EDI)

The School Readiness of Red Deer’s Kindergarten Children A Preliminary Report on the Results of the Early Development Instrument, is one of several reports and products released by the Red Deer Understanding the Early Years Project. 2 The UEY Red Deer Project is funded by the Government of Canada’ s Understanding the Early Years Initiative. The opinions and interpretations in this publication are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Government of Canada.

The Early Development Instrument (EDI) 3  Developed by the Offord Centre for Child Studies at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario  Designed to assess how children are faring as a group in a community in five areas or domains of early development  Examines how well children are prepared to participate in school activities-school readiness  Does not provide diagnostic information about individual children, and does not measure school performance  Results can be used to report on areas of strength and deficit for populations of children, monitor populations of children over time, predict how children will do in later school years.

What is meant by “readiness to learn?” Children are born ‘ready to learn.’ The human neurosystem is pre-programmed to develop various pathways and skills, depending on the experiences that a child receives. School Readiness refers to the child’s ability to meet the tasks and expectations at school. The EDI is a measurement of readiness to learn at school.

The EDI looks at children’s development in 5 areas or domains 1. Physical health and well-being Includes: 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 5

2. Social Competence Includes: curiosity about the world, eagerness to try new experiences, knowledge of standards of acceptable behaviour in a public place, ability to control own behaviour, appropriate respect for adult authority, cooperation with others, following rules ability to play and work with other children 3. Emotional Maturity Includes: 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 6

4. Language and cognitive development Includes: 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 5. Communication skills and general knowledge Includes: skills to communicate needs and wants in socially appropriate ways symbolic use of language, story telling, age-appropriate knowledge about the life and world around; Two additional indicators look at Special skills and Special problems 7

8 Sample EDI Questions How would you rate this child’s:  Level of energy throughout the school day?  Ability to tell a story?  Ability to play with various children? Would you say that this child:  Is able to write his or her own name?  Follows directions?  Appears fearful or anxious?

9 The Red Deer Collection of Information  Kindergarten teachers in Red Deer Public and Red Deer Catholic Schools completed the EDI for their students in March of 2009, after a training session on the procedure.  Approximately 104 questions for each student were completed.  Only children who had been in the kindergarten class for at least one month were included.  Signed parental permission was obtained.  The findings are based on a sample of 850 kindergarten children.

10 The Red Deer Collection of Information con’t  Completed EDI surveys were shipped to the Offord Centre at McMaster University in Hamilton for scoring and comparison to the Canadian sample of 176,621 children.  Results were returned to the Red Deer Understanding the Early Years Project.

11  In all 5 developmental areas, the Red Deer kindergarten children achieved higher average scores than the Canadian sample.  Of the sample of Red Deer kindergarten children, 17.8% scored low in at least one area of development 9.4% of the children scored low in at least two areas of development  The greatest strength for children was in the area of physical readiness for school Key Findings:

 On the physical health and well being sub-domains, the gross and fine motor skills sub-domain had the fewest children with developmental readiness.  The Multiple Challenge Index, a measure of wide-ranging challenges indicated by low scores on 3 or more developmental domains showed that 2.1% of the Red Deer sample had multiple challenges, compared to 3.9% of the Canadian sample.  The results revealed that communication skills and general knowledge was the most challenging area for Red Deer’s kindergarten children. 12 Key Findings con’t

13 Comparison of average scores in each of the 5 EDI domains Red Deer and Canadian scores

Percentages of children who scored low on at least one or two of the five EDI domains, compared to the Canadian sample 14 Percentages Red DeerCanadian Normative II sample Low on at least one developmental readiness domain 17.8% 27.2% Low on at least two developmental readiness domains 9.4% 13.6%

15 Domains % Vulnerable Red Deer Cut-offs Physical Health and Well-Being12.5% Social Competence11.3% Emotional Maturity9.4% Language and Cognitive Development 10.0% Communication skills & General Knowledge 13.6% Vulnerable children are considered to be those whose scores fall below the 10 th percentile. These children are not at all developmentally ready to handle the tasks and expectations of school. (Children with identified special needs are not included in these results). Table 2: Percentage of Vulnerable Children in one or more domains, from the Red Deer sample

16 DomainsGirlsBoys Statistically Significant? NMeanSDNMeanSD Physical health and well-being Yes Social competence Yes Emotional maturity Yes Language and cognitive development Yes Communication skills and general knowledge Yes Significant differences were found between girls and boys. With respect to every domain girls scored higher than boys. Note: This is a consistent developmental phenomenon across all sites where the EDI has been implemented Table 5 depicts the comparative mean score on the five domains for boys and girls.

17 DomainsAbove mean ageBelow the mean age Statistically Significant? NMeanSDNMeanSD Physical health and well-being Yes Social competence Yes Emotional maturity Yes Language and cognitive development Yes Communication skills and general knowledge Yes The mean age of Red Deer children assessed was 5.71 years. Children above the mean age recorded better levels of readiness to learn than children below the mean age. Note: This is a consistent developmental phenomenon across all sites where the EDI has been implemented. Table 4: Effect of age of child on mean scores in EDI domains

18 Children with English as their first language had higher language and cognitive development, communication skills and general knowledge scores than children who with English as their second language. It is important to use caution in interpretation of this table, given that this group is only 3.4% of the children in the sample. Table 5: Effect of English as Second Language (ESL) Status on mean scores in EDI domains DomainsELS Not ESL Statistically Significant? NMeanSDNMeanSD Physical health and well-being No Social competence No Emotional maturity No Language and cognitive development Yes Communication skills and general knowledge Yes

19 Children in French immersion programs scored higher on all the four domains compared to children without French immersion. Table 6: Effect of French Immersion on mean scores in EDI domains DomainsFrench ImmersionNo French Immersion Statistically Significant? NMeanSDNMeanSD Physical health and well-being No Social competence Yes Emotional maturity Yes Language and cognitive development Yes Communication skills and general knowledge Yes

20 Children with Aboriginal status (self-identified as North American Indian, First Nation, Metis, or Inuit-Census 2006 definition); scored significantly lower in all five domains when compared to children with non-Aboriginal status. It is important to use caution in interpretation of this table, given that this group is less than 5% of the children in the sample. Table 7: Effect of Aboriginal Status on mean scores in EDI domains Domains Aboriginal Non- Aboriginal Statistically Significant? NMeanSDNMeanSD Physical health and well-being Yes Social competence Yes Emotional maturity Yes Language and cognitive development Yes Communication skills and general knowledge Yes

21 Early interventions programs are defined as speech/language therapy, Head Start, a school-based program for mild/moderate or Program Unit Funded children, or if similar services were provided in the home. Table 8: Effect of attending an early intervention program on mean scores in EDI domains DomainsEarly InterventionNo Early Intervention Statistically Significant? NMeanSDNMeanSD Physical health and well-being No Social competence No Emotional maturity No Language and cognitive development No Communication skills and general knowledge Yes

22 Language and religion classes are such things as Sunday school, or Hebrew or Spanish classes. The influence of language and/or religious classes was limited to two domains of children’s readiness to learn at school. Table 9: Effect of attending language or religious classes on mean scores in EDI domains Domains Language/ Religion Classes No Language/ Religion Classes Statistically Significant? NMeanSDNMeanSD Physical health and well-being No Social competence No Emotional maturity Yes Language and cognitive development Yes Communication skills and general knowledge No

23 No significant differences were found in developmental readiness scores with respect to the types of non-parental care arrangement. Non-parental care arrangements include care at a day care centre, family day home, or in the child’s own home by relatives or non-relatives. Table 11: Effect of type of non-parental care arrangement on mean scores in EDI domains DomainsFull TimePart Time Statistically Significant? NMeanSDNMeanSD Physical health and well-being No Social competence No Emotional maturity No Language and cognitive development Yes Communication skills and general knowledge No

24 There was a link between scores of children who attended part-time preschool educational activities and the EDI domains. Part time preschool activities are programs that do not provide full day child care and do not involve an early intervention component. On all five domains children who attended part-time preschool have significantly higher scores than children who did not attend. Table 10: Effect of attending part-time preschool on mean scores in EDI domains Domains PreschoolNo PreschoolStatistically Significant? NMeanSDNMeanSD Physical health and well-being Yes Social competence Yes Emotional maturity Yes Language and cognitive development Yes Communication skills and general knowledge Yes

25 Physical Health and Well-Being Social Competence Emotional Maturity Language and Cognitive Development Communication Skills &General Knowledge Physical readiness for school day Physical independence Gross and fine motor skills Overall social competence Responsibility and respect Approaches to learning Readiness to explore new things Prosocial and helping behaviour Anxious and fearful behaviour Aggressive behaviour Hyperactivity and inattention Basic literacy Interest in literacy numeracy and memory Advanced literacy Basic literacy Communication skills and general knowledge The 5 developmental domains of the EDI contain16 sub-domains, with the exception of Communication Skills and General Knowledge, which does not have sub-domains. The following table shows the sub-domains for each domain.

26 Key components of communication and general knowledge include effective communication, ability to participate in story-telling or imaginative play, clear articulation, demonstration of adequate general knowledge, and proficiency of children in their native language.

Policy makers, schools, service providers, libraries, and community organizations can use the results to make decisions about programs and allocation of resources. EDI results for Red Deer will be mapped, as is done in British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Ontario, Manitoba Through Alberta Education, all school districts in Alberta will be involved in collecting information on the readiness to learn of kindergarten children, using the EDI Instrument. The Red Deer EDI results will become part of the provincial project Collection of the information on new groups of kindergarten students will allow trends to be examined. 27 Next Steps

28 Next Steps Policy makers, schools, service providers, libraries, and community organizations can use the results to make decisions about programs and allocation of resources. EDI results for Red Deer will be mapped, as is done in British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Ontario, Manitoba Through Alberta Education, all school districts in Alberta will be involved in collecting information on the readiness to learn of kindergarten children, using the EDI Instrument. The Red Deer EDI results will become part of the provincial project Collection of the information on new groups of kindergarten students will allow trends to be examined.

For more information, contact Laurie Lafortune, Red Deer Understanding the Early Years Coordinator at Family Services of Central Alberta: Research Summaries and the full report will be available at Thank you for your participation! 29