Linking data
Consistent measures of early child development can be linked to other measurements of health, educational and behaviour outcomes over the life course. It is possible to construct crosswalks between health, early child development and education databases that integrate population-wide, person-specific data at national, provincial/territorial, and community levels.
Linking early child development outcome data with education, health, and social service administrative databases is key. It allows scientists, policy makers and communities to better understand the relationships among developmental outcomes, demographic characteristics, cultural factors, and socio-economic circumstances at the community level.