Understanding the Early Years (UEY) will provide communities with quality information about their children, families and the community. The information is collected from teachers, parents and children and involves the following data collections:

EARLY DEVELOPMENT INSTRUMENT (EDI)

Developed by the Offord Centre for Child Studies at McMaster University, the EDI is an instrument that measures children’s readiness to learn in school environments in five general domains:

• physical health and well-being
• social competence
• emotional maturity
• language and cognitive development
• communication skills and general knowledge

The purpose of the instrument is to report on populations of children in different communities and to help communities assess how well they are doing in supporting young children and their families.

The survey is completed by kindergarten/primary teachers on each kindergarten/primary child in the class.

PARENT INTERVIEWS AND DIRECT ASSESSMENTS OF CHILDREN SURVEY (PIDACS)

The PIDACS examine the relationship between children’s development and the various family and community factor that could influence that development.

The survey interviews parents/guardians of kindergarten/primary children to obtain information on the family, the child’s development and the child’s experiences in the community.

Primary children are administered three direct assessments that examine children’s receptive or hearing vocabulary, copying or printing skills related to early literacy and number knowledge.

Information gathered from the EDI and PIDACS will be analyzed and findings will be used to create a community research report for UEY Halifax.

COMMUNITY MAPPING

In addition to the activities related to the EDI and PIDACS, UEY Halifax will produce a Community Mapping Report. Computer software will be used to produce maps that will display information related to the communities located within the UEY Halifax geographic boundaries. The maps will provide visual pictures of community factors, such as location of parks, libraries, child-care centres; community socio-economic characteristics, such as rates of employment and home ownership; and children’s school readiness, such as social competence, physical health and well-being.

The Understanding the Early Years Initiative is funded by Human Resources and Social Development Canada. For more information, visit www.hrsdc.gc.ca.