Early childhood education and care refers to environments and experiences of children in their first years of life.
Why is this important?
The experiences and environments where children live, play, and learn through their early years can have lifelong impacts. Nurturing and responsive caregivers, good nutrition, and high quality early child development programs support positive outcomes for learning, behaviour, and physical and mental health.[1]
Vulnerability in Early Childhood
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Senior Kindergarten Students Vulnerable on At Least One EDI Domain
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The Early Development Instrument (EDI) is a questionnaire completed by kindergarten teachers in the second half of the school year. The EDI measures children's ability to meet age-appropriate developmental expectations at school-entry in five domains:
- physical health and well-being
- social competence
- emotional maturity
- language and cognitive development
- communication skills and general knowledge
Children are considered "vulnerable" if they are scored low (below the 10th percentile) on any of the five domains.
Key findings
In 2018, the percent of children who were vulnerable in Guelph (30.0%) and Wellington County (30.5%) was on par with Ontario (29.6%). A higher percentage of vulnerability means more children are struggling in one or more of the developmental domains.
*Wellington County does not include the City of Guelph.
Source: Early Development Instrument, 2018. Prepared by the County of Dufferin and the County of Wellington. WDG Report Card Coalition (distributor). Last updated December 2021.
Data was prepared by the County of Dufferin Children's Services and the County of Wellington Child Care Services and analyzed by the Wellington Dufferin Guelph Coalition for Report Cards on the Well-Being of Children.
Limitations
The EDI data presented here include results for senior kindergarten children attending schools in local public and Catholic boards. EDI results for children with special needs are reported separately. EDI results are applicable only to groups of children and are not intended for determining, assessing, or diagnosing individual children.
Looking for more information?
For more information about this measure please download the excel file below or visit the WDG Report Cards on the Well-being of Children website or the Offord Centre's website about the EDI.
Download Full Dataset
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Why is vulnerability in early childhood important?
Children are vulnerable when they struggle with language, communication, knowledge and/or social, physical or emotional health. Research shows children who score as vulnerable on the EDI are more likely to struggle later in life.[2]
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Adequate Child Care Provision
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Adequate child care provision means having enough licensed child care spaces for the number of children in an area.
Child Care Spaces for Children Birth to Four Years of Age
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This measure presents the number of licensed, full-and-part-time child care spaces available per 100 children (age 0 to 4 years).
Key findings
Across Wellington County, there are licensed child care spaces available for 24.5% of children birth to 4 years of age. Compared to 2019, there has been an increase in the availability of licensed child care for children birth to 4 years in Wellington County.
Source: County of Wellington, Social Services 2022. Licensed child care spaces available to children birth up to 4 years old. Last updated as of December 31, 2022.
Limitations
This measure only reports on the quantity of child care spaces, but does not provide any information about the quality of child care. Quality is an important factor in the positive impact of licensed child care on child development. There is currently no consensus on how to best measure quality of licensed child care.
This measure does not include licensed home child care spaces.
The availability of spaces also does not ensure access to child care, as each municipality in Wellington County covers a large geographic area.
Looking for more information?
For more information about access to child care in Guelph and Wellington County, download the excel file below or visit the WDG Report Cards on the Well-being of Children website or Growing Great Generations.
Download Full Dataset
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References
[1] McCain, M. and Fraser Mustard, J. (1999). Reversing the Real Brain Drain. Early Years Study Final Report. https://www.oise.utoronto.ca/guestid/humandevelopment/UserFiles/File/Early_Years_Study_1.pdf
[2] Offord Centre for Child Studies. (2016). What is the EDI? https://edi.offordcentre.com/about/what-is-the-edi/
