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| Program Detail - Day 2 Tuesday, November 17 |
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View: Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | At-a-glance 7:30 AM – 8:30 AM 8:45 AM – 10:30 AM Traditional Opening and Prayer Welcome from Manitoba Welcome from Conference Chairperson 9:00 AM This session will introduce the initial findings of the pan-Canadian EDI project. The project team has been working with a range of provinces to compile and undertake a common analysis of EDI results across the country. Dr. Hertzman and Dr. Janus will speak to these results. They will highlight what is being learned about the trends in children’s development in Canada and discuss the implications for communities, researchers and government. 10:30 AM – 11:00 AM 11:00 AM – 12:30 PM CONCURRENT SESSION 1A - Understanding Children’s Development in Aboriginal Communities Understanding the relevance of the population level measurement in Aboriginal communities requires understanding the environments and context within which Aboriginal children live. The presenters will bring experiences from B.C. and Saskatchewan in working with Aboriginal communities and organizations to build partnerships and best support children and families. MICHELE SAM, Human Early Learning Partnership (British Columbia) The Aboriginal population is growing. As a result of a shift in social policy, we are a young population having children. We also have more opportunities to regain cultural knowledges, traditional ways and find meaningful ways for our children to live life. However, we are also challenged with finding balance and re-establishing our intellectual traditions with whole person and community development. The EDI, as an Aboriginal community and nation engagement tools helps to bridge various disciplines and sectors of governance towards whole children and community growth. Aboriginal children and school readiness: looking beyond the data to prepare children for school Data on school readiness often show that some children have already fallen behind in their performance, midway through the kindergarten year. Children of Aboriginal ancestry are one such constituency. This presentation will attempt to look behind and beyond, this observation, to understand why differences in school readiness exist between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal children (three analytical explanations will be considered: the presence of unique EDI sub-domain distributions, assessor’s bias, and socioenvironmental factors) and what we need to do to help all children come well prepared to learn in school. CONCURRENT SESSION 1B - Community Resilience What are the local factors that contribute to community resilience? Why do some communities seem to be “trumping” their socio-economic conditions and creating environments that successfully support children’s development? The presenters will bring stories of how they are making a difference to children’s development in their community. ANNE COOPER, Superintendent, Revelstoke Board of Education (British Columbia); TRACY SPANNIER, Revelstoke Early Childhood Development Coordinator (British Columbia) Revelstoke's Board of Education, fully supported by a vibrant Early Childhood Development Committee, has embraced early learning and has implemented, sustained and expanded numerous programs to support young children. The Superintendent and Early Childhood Development Committee Coordinator will share how they have established synergy within their community. They are proud of their achievements in early childhood development and will provide an overview of the results that they are seeing. Revelstoke is currently one of the least vulnerable communities in British Columbia as indicated by the Early Development Instrument. From Aspiration to Action “From Aspiration to Action” – In 2006, Hamilton, Ontario launched an ambitious aspiration to “Make Hamilton the Best Place to Raise a Child”. The aspiration captured the imagination and energy of the over 500,000 residents in Hamilton. But how do you move towards such a lofty goal when faced with high levels of poverty – and in particular child poverty? How do you maintain momentum in the face of an economic downturn that has hit “Steeltown” hard? In this presentation we will look at the alignment that is taking place in Hamilton to help build a multi-sector approach where each partner is “playing their position” and helping to ensure success for children, families and the future of our community. CONCURRENT SESSION 1C - UEY – 10 Years of Learning Understanding the Early Years, a federally sponsored initiative, has compiled ten years of learning in how communities can use data to understand and then plan for the needs of their children. Presenters will speak to the UEY initiative in their communities and how it has been linked to the country wide learning. Understanding the Early Years in Prince Edward Island: A pilot project - ten years later. The Early Childhood Development Association of PEI was awarded one of the first five pilot Understanding the Early Years (UEY) projects, and the first province wide UEY initiative. Ten years later, we see many changes in how our province supports early child development. This session will provide a retrospective of our Island over the past ten years, revealing the broad reach of the theoretical underpinnings, the research evidence, and the community development practices endeared by the UEY Project. Examples of direct and indirect effects, predictable and unpredictable changes that have taken place; research, partnerships, community involvement, and systemic changes will be highlighted. And, what has our province learned? Where are we now, and what does the future look like, in how we support children in the early years? Understanding the Early Years in South Eastman, Manitoba: A pilot project - ten years later. The goal of this session is to provide examples of how Understanding the Early Years (UEY) research has made a difference to South Eastman. Our rural region became the second UEY pilot project site in Manitoba, and the first to be sponsored by a regional health authority. UEY has offered insight into ways in which local information can influence strategies and aid decision making aimed at improving child developmental outcomes. This session will explore the evolution of this 7 year project – including the building of partnerships and structures which have continued to strengthen past the life of UEY. CONCURRENT SESSION 1D - Children with Special Needs and Risk Factors Related to Children’s Outcomes This session will provide two distinct presentations illustrating how vulnerability in special needs children and family and child risk factors can be understood. The EDI allows for children with special needs to be identified and for analyses to be done on the developmental outcomes of this group. What are we learning about the differences and similarities in the development of children with special needs? Transition to school for children with special needs: Beyond EDI data Children with special needs face a more complex transition to school than typical children. However, this transition and its long-term consequences on their adjustment have not been systematically investigated in Canada. We will present EDI-based data on children with special needs entering school system, and describe an in-depth study of the process faced by these children and their families from prior to school entry through the first years of school. DR. MARIETTE CHARTIER, Healthy Child Manitoba The family environment is influential in child development, making it crucial to identify which situations, stressors, or behaviors are known to be associated with family difficulties and ultimately child outcomes. Healthy Child Manitoba in partnership with the Regional Health Authorities, attempts to screen all families with newborns for risk factors associated with poor child outcomes. This session will show how Manitoba utilizes the Families First Screen to direct families to appropriate resources such as child care, parenting programs, financial assistance, or home visiting programs. The information is also used for tracking risk factors for policy development and planning services. CONCURRENT SESSION 1E - Tools for EDI Knowledge Translation Much of the impact of the EDI in Canada has been due to the effective translation of the results to communities and policy makers. This session will focus on two key mechanisms for knowledge translation: mapping and effective report writing that successfully combines the EDI with other indicators to build relevance and understanding. Mapping: An effective tool for knowledge translation Maps can be used to tell a unique story about a place. In this sense, they are powerful tools that render objective data personal. People connect to maps through their association with place. Using EDI data, community asset data and socioeconomic data, maps constructed by local, provincial, and national experts have been able to reach a broad range of community members, stakeholders and policy makers alike with knowledge about a range of indictors. This presentation will identify some key types of mapping with various datasets that have been used to connect the objective to the personal and show new innovations in knowledge translation using interactive maps - making the knowledge even more relevant to the end user. Turning Research into Knowledge and Knowledge into Action Key Results for Halton’s Our Kids Network This presentation will highlight the work of Halton’s Our Kids Network in creating tools for dissemination of EDI results through school profiles, neighbourhood profiles and a community indicators report card. Some of the key challenges we have faced in getting the EDI information out to the community are creating plain language documents and getting the community to act on the results. To overcome these challenges the Our Kids Network has adopted Results Based Accountability (RBA) as the framework for moving from talk to action. RBA is practiced extensively throughout the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and the Netherlands. Halton is one of the first communities in Canada to adopt RBA. Session participants will get a brief overview on RBA and how it has contributed to our success in turning research into knowledge and knowledge into action. The Our Kids Network’s work in knowledge translation and mobilization is internationally acclaimed and has been awarded the 2008 International Community Innovation Award from the U.S.-based Community Indicators Consortium. 12:30 PM – 1:30 PM 1:30 PM – 3:00 PM Monitoring Development as Children Grow Facilitator: PIPPA ROWCLIFFE, Council for Early Child Development (British Columbia) The pan-Canadian EDI platform monitors the population of Canadian children in kindergarten. This panel session will provide information on work being done to develop systems of monitoring at 18 months and in middle childhood along with an overview of how public investment to early childhood, care and education can be measured. Taken together these components will contribute to the development of “the world’s best” system of monitoring children’s development in Canada. Panelists: Middle Development Instrument Dr. Schonert-Reichl will provide information and pilot findings on the Middle Years Development Instrument - also known as the MDI. The MDI is a newly developed self-report measure for children in grades 4 to 7 designed to assess underlying protective factors that enhance long-term mental health. The five dimensions assessed on the MDI include: Social and Emotional Development, Connectedness, School Experiences, Physical Health and Well-Being, and Constructive Use of Time.. To date, there is a scarcity of Canadian research that explains the experiences of children ages 9 to 12. Monitoring Children’s Development: Can we do it at 18 months? In Ontario, we have no way of monitoring children’s developmental health at the population level prior to school entry. As Ontario has implemented an Enhanced 18 month well baby visit for Family Physicians and other primary care providers, we hope to be able to develop a system of monitoring using the primary health care system. During this presentation we will describe the enhanced visit, as well as the strategies, barriers and facilitators that have been encountered. Public Spending on Young Children and Families in Canada: Distraction, Diversion or Down Payment on Modernized Public Policy? While public spending on young children and families in Canada remains substantially lower than the OECD average, over the last decade a range of new policies and programs have been funded by federal and/or provincial/territorial governments. To what extent is the research on early human development and the evidence about modern families influencing program design and implementation? This presentation will explore the role of public performance reporting guidelines in Canada, as they relate to programs and services for children and families, and highlight established indicators, benchmarks and standards that suggest a Canadian framework for assessing the potential effectiveness of spending initiatives. 3:00 PM – 4:30 PM CONCURRENT SESSION 2A - The Importance of EDI Data to School Systems The EDI assists communities in planning and building resources for children in their earliest years. The school system is a critical partner in the use of the results. Presenters in this session will address how the EDI can be used by the school system to plan for early years programs, ease the transition between early childhood and the K to 12 education system and look forward to best support children’s learning. SHIRLEY-ANN TEAL, Peel District School Board (Ontario) This session will address the analysis and use of EDI data in promoting student success within the Peel District School Board. EDI data results drive decision making in program and budget at the system, family of schools and individual school level. Examples will focus on EDI as the driver of hubs and readiness centres as well as community mobilization around Success By 6. CAROLYN DUHAMEL, Manitoba School Boards Association All Manitoba school divisions currently collect EDI data. This presentation will explore how the data is being used in Manitoba school divisions and its impacts on school board decision making with regard to early years and pre-school policies, programs and services. CONCURRENT SESSION 2B - The Relationship Between Children’s Development and Socioeconomics Much is known about the impact of socio-economics on children’s healthy development. This session will drill down in to the relationship between SES and EDI results drawing on research from Canada and Australia. What are the most predictive SES factors for children’s vulnerability and how can our understanding of this relationship contribute to communities’ and policy makers’ actions to support children? New evidence about the Relationships between Children’s Development, SES and Public Policy Research evidence suggests that EDI vulnerability rates are particularly high in BC when neighbourhood dynamics result in small population enclaves being left behind socially and economically, even by the standards of others who are relatively disadvantaged in the same neighborhoods. Dr. Kershaw will explore the SES indicators that signal these enclaves. He will conclude by considering the evidence from BC which anticipates the role that welfare policy and child care services may play in reinforcing or challenging these enclaves. Kids in Communities – What is it about Communities? There is increasing recognition that local communities can play an important role in improving the outcomes for young children; however this field of research is fraught with statistical and methodological challenges. In response to these challenges, an international collaboration has been established with lead collaborators from a range of disciplines as well as both academic and government organisations across Australia and Canada. The collaboration (called the Kids In Communities Study) has conceptualised a model whereby community level factors can be considered within 6 domains - social, physical, service, economic, cultural and governance. The Kids in Communities Study is currently investigating and testing quantitative and qualitative ecological methodologies to measure each of the 6 domains with the results of the Australian EDI (Early Development Instrument) being the primary outcome indicator. CONCURRENT SESSION 2C - EDI in Francophone Communities This session will provide examples of how the EDI has been used in both majority and minority Francophone communities. Content will cover each step of the EDI process from implementation to community action. This session will be presented in French. (add text in French for both?) Montréal school readiness survey: data for action In 2006, as part of its mandate to promote early childhood development and social adjustment, the Direction de santé publique (DSP) de l’Agence de la santé et des services sociaux de Montréal conducted the school readiness survey of Montréal children, En route pour l’école! The survey used the EDI to assess the developmental status of all kindergarten children in Montréal public schools (over 10,000 children). The survey findings shed light on the fact that while our society invests heavily in early childhood, too many children in Montréal are vulnerable when they first start school. This concern caused the DSP to launch, in 2008, the Initiative des sommets montréalais sur la maturité scolaire. These summits brought together over 3000 stakeholders in early childhood. Their objective was to interpret survey data, define the needs of preschoolers and their families, and compel local and regional stakeholders to take action towards improving living environments and services. The survey outlined major issues—availability and quality of services, appropriateness of services in relation to the needs, social inequalities and cooperation—which posed a key question: Are we doing what is best for the well-being and success of our children? This presentation focuses on the knowledge transfer and community mobilization processes that occurred in 2008-2009 in the Montréal region following dissemination of the survey findings. The issues that were raised and the ensuing effects on action in the area of early childhood in various communities in Montréal will also be discussed. L’IMDPE et les communautés francophones en milieu minoritaire Les communautés francophones en milieu minoritaire de la province du Nouveau-Brunswick n’ont pu bénéficier des vagues 1 et 2 du programme fédéral Comprendre la petite enfance. Cependant, deux régions, celles de Chaleur et de La Péninsule Acadienne ont voulu tracer le profil de leurs jeunes enfants en utilisant les données régionales dont ils disposaient. Avec la collaboration du Centre canadien pour l’étude des enfants à risque de l’Université McMaster, du Groupe de recherche en petite enfance (GRPE) de l’Université de Moncton et de plusieurs organismes communautaires, ces deux régions ont réussi à obtenir les données nécessaires pour développer des projets d’intervention dans le but de préparer les enfants pour leur entrée scolaire. De l’expérience, il en est ressorti que la préparation des enfants à leur entrée scolaire est davantage assurée par une harmonisation des programmes et un accès universel. CONCURRENT SESSION 2D - Working in Rural Communities with Population Level Data Geography and small populations pose unique challenges to rural and remote communities in their efforts to undertake meaningful analysis and planning for their children. Understanding rural communities is often directly related to the size, socioeconomic health of the community and the proximity to the nearest urban centre. This session will bring together community coordinators from a number of rural communities across the country to tell their stories and share ideas for mitigating challenges and maximizing the rural advantage. KIM BURNS, Ontario Early Years / Autism Intervention Program Kim will be presenting on some of the challenges that communities in rural, Northern Ontario face in relation to Population-level data, analyses and GIS mapping. Most of this presentation will incorporate the strategies used to overcome some of these challenges as well as successes related to using this population-level data for community planning. ARLENE KINDEN, Understanding the Early Years (Manitoba) Arlene will reflect on how the results of the Early Development Instrument are being used in the Lord Selkirk School Division region, both at the school and community level. She will discuss the partnerships that have developed at a local, provincial and federal level which focus on the early childhood development. Arlene will also highlight the development of programs in the region which focus on areas of need according to their EDI results. CONCURRENT SESSION 2E - Understanding Children’s Development in Aboriginal Communities Repeat - See Session 1A. Download: Printer-friendly program |
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“Over one quarter of Canada’s children are behind in at least one aspect of their development at kindergarten entry”
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Sponsored by the Council for Early Child Development in partnership with the Human Early Learning Partnership, the Offord Centre for Child Studies and Healthy Child Manitoba.