Readiness may not mean what you think

Look on the Internet or visit any book store and you’ll see there is no shortage of resources to help your child get “ready” for kindergarten. Some even provide a kindergarten readiness checklist. Can your child count to ten? Check. Print her name? Check. Say the alphabet? Check.

But from an early childhood development point of view, kindergarten readiness has very little to do with the academic skills children have already mastered before entering school. It has everything to do with how socially and emotionally prepared they are to learn in a formal school setting.

When you look at it that way, being “ready” means having the speech and hearing capabilities that will allow for language and communication development. It means being emotionally mature and socially competent enough to foster healthy interactions with others.  It also means having a body that is well nourished and fit.

Failure to identify and support children who have not adequately developed in these fundamental areas before they reach school can have life-long negative consequences.  Studies show that children who enter school with significant unmet needs in these areas -- we call them vulnerabilities -- will have a higher incidence of school failure, increased drop out rates and even a greater potential for criminal activity. It’s not a small problem.

Research shows that 16 to 18 percent of all children entering kindergarten would benefit from early identification of special needs or vulnerabilities (Boyle, 1994). Between 30 and 50 percent of vulnerable children will reach kindergarten without being identified or supported (Glascoe, 2003).

When a child has vulnerabilities, for whatever reason, early identification and intervention is key to increasing overall success in school and later in life.

An effective tool used by communities throughout British Columbia to identify where children are most vulnerable is the Early Development Instrument (EDI). The University of British Columbia’s Human Early Learning Partnership (HELP), in collaboration with Make Children First, administered the EDI in Kamloops in 2002.

The EDI measures kindergarten readiness in five to six year olds. Here’s how it works.

Kindergarten teachers fill out a 120-item questionnaire for each child in their class. The teacher uses the EDI to describe the child’s level of development in five areas: physical health and well-being; social competence; emotional maturity; language and cognitive development; and communication skills and general knowledge.

The information is mapped according to where the children live, not by where they go to school. Individuals are never identified and all information collected is strictly confidential.

The EDI is intended to stimulate discussion among teachers, parents, schools, governments and community agencies around the early childhood program needs within their communities. Results are helping communities target funds and resources where they will have the greatest positive impact.

In Kamloops, the 2002 EDI results are providing a benchmark from which we can measure change.  The EDI will be implemented again in Kamloops in the next few years.

The Kamloops EDI results were presented to School District 73, the Kamloops Social Planning Council and other community groups and agencies for use in their early childhood planning. Make Children First is also using the EDI results to identify where early childhood screening and intervention is most critical. In next month’s column I’ll be talking about how screening is done and why it is so important.

If you would like to review the results of the EDI conducted in Kamloops through School District 73, visit  www.ecdportal.help.ubc.ca Or for more information call Make Children First at 554-3134.