Understanding the Early Years - Early Childhood Development in Winnipeg (School Division No. 1) - November 2001

Executive Summary

Understanding the Early Years (UEY) is a national research initiative. It provides communities with information to enable them to make informed decisions about the best policies and most appropriate programs for families with young children. It seeks to provide information about the influence of community factors on children's early development and to improve the community's capacity to use these data in monitoring child development and creating effective community-based responses.

This report is one of five community reports describing children's outcomes and explaining them in terms of three factors: family background, family processes, and community factors. Children's outcomes were assessed in three major categories: physical health and well-being, cognitive skills, and behavioural measures.

Each evaluation comprised several measures.

Family background includes information on the parents' income, level of education, and occupational status.
Family processes include positive parenting practices, engagement in learning activities, family functioning, and maternal mental health.
Community factors include social support and social capital, neighbourhood quality and safety, use of recreational, cultural, educational resources and residential stability.

Generally, the children of Winnipeg (School Division No. 1) are fortunate, because a base of family and community support for the early years has already been established. There is, however, room for improvement, especially at the neighbourhood and community levels. With decisions based on research evidence, effective practices can be developed and the Winnipeg (School Division No. 1) community can continue to work toward achieving the goal of ensuring that every child enters school with the best possible chance of success.

Data for these reports were derived from several sources:

The National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth (NLSCY) Community Study is a national instrument used to gather data directly from parents and children concerning the health and well-being of Canada's of children 5-6 years of age.
The Early Development Instrument (EDI) is based on a teachers' checklist of their kindergarten students' readiness to learn.
The NLSCY and EDI data collected from the UEY sites allows comparison across the first five UEY communities. Where possible, the outcomes of the children in this community were compared with averages for their province and for Canada as a whole. If data was not available at those levels, the outcomes of the children are compared across the five UEY communities of Southwest Newfoundland; Prince Edward Island; Winnipeg (School Division No. 1), Manitoba; Prince Albert, Saskatchewan; and Fraser North, British Columbia.

Winnipeg (School Division No. 1) is one of the first five sites for the UEY initiative. Valuable lessons will be learned about the needs and strengths of communities with different economic, social, and physical characteristics, and about how they are each working to improve their young children's outcomes. This community-based research is important because it allows a community to understand how well its youngest citizens are developing and lends insight into which factors contribute to success and which warrant further consideration.

Contents