“I hoped for a significantly better outcome. I felt that throughout my career I put a lot of effort into ensuring there are good services for families,” said Kathleen Waxer, director of Community and Family Services. “I had to go back to the big picture.”
ECMap is a provincially funded study of early childhood development — from prenatal to age five — in Alberta.
From 2010 to 2012, kindergarten teachers completed an Early Development Instrument (EDI) questionnaire for each of their students. The EDI examines development in five areas: social competence, language and thinking skills, physical health and well-being, emotional maturity, and communication skills and general knowledge.
Jasper’s scores “are better in some areas and worse in others.” Two areas with the lowest scores are social competency, with 30.31 per cent of children experiencing difficulty or great difficulty and 28.79 per cent experiencing difficulty or great difficulty in communication skills and general knowledge.
Results may be skewed because 2006 census data was used to analyse the figures instead of 2011 data, which was unavailable at the time.
“The one area I identify is over the last five years we’ve had a dramatic shift in demographics, that many children entering kindergarten are new to Canada or their families are new to Canada,” said Waxer.
Jodi Campbell, a Jasper Elementary School kindergarten teacher, acknowledged that during the years she completed those questionnaires, her classes had more children that were new to Canada than ever before.
Low response may also play a factor. Only 66 questionnaires were completed in Jasper throughout the three years, so individual scores represent a larger percentage of the results. Some parents also didn’t allow their children to participate in the questionnaire. Kindergarten isn’t mandatory in Alberta, so ECMap excludes statistics on the children who didn’t attend. Sixty-six students is “not a big enough pool” to draw specific results from, said Campbell.
The EDI findings were shared during an open house at Community Outreach Services on Monday, March 11. The results triggered a discussion about what Jasper’s community does well to foster early childhood development and what needs improvement.
Attendees included parents, teachers, a principal and Parks Canada and municipal employees.
“It really does take a village to raise a child,” said Waxer. An entire community plays a role in early childhood development, from access to services, parks, programs and activities, infrastructure, change tables in restrooms and acceptance of public breastfeeding.
“Topography, too—it sounds silly—but children need to learn to walk up and down a hill,” she adds.
After visiting her native Slovakia, local resident Janka Kozacikova views Jasper as an optimal place for her children, both under five, to grow up.
“There’s no place to take the kids for a walk there,” she said, referring to the traffic-filled streets she passed while out with her children.
Since that experience she appreciates how Jasper caters to pedestrians. “It’s incredible. Jasper is the easiest place to raise children.”
Aside from Jasper’s walkable layout and parks, the community has a multitude of early childhood development resources like the Parent Link Centre, Children Indoor Play Society (CHIPS) and daycare facility.
Jasper is one of the few Albertan communities with a daycare subsidized by its municipality. Without subsidy, the $1,000 per month fee to care for an infant would cost between another $300 or $400 per month.
Though some parents need childcare on evenings and weekends, cost is the main reason why the facility doesn’t run during those times, said Waxer. Two employees need to be in the facility whenever it’s open and it’s not financially justified to operate the daycare with only a small amount of children.
While family and community play roles in early childhood development, so does society, said Waxer.
Jasper results almost parallel the rest of the province, with 27.27 per cent in Jasper experiencing great difficulty in one or more areas of development compared to 26.96 per cent in Alberta. These similar results might be a coincidence, but also might hint at society’s influence on early childhood development.
There has been a detraction from what Waxer calls “pure play,” where pressure isn’t placed on a child to learn something. “There’s considerable research that says ordinary play is how children begin to really comprehend the world around them and learn the messy business of interacting with other human beings.”
Roaming distances have decreased as more parents are reluctant to lose sight of their children or let them walk to the park alone to play.
“Now you have to take them somewhere rather than let them go somewhere,” said Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) Peter Waterworth.
Perhaps most important is society’s general stance on early childhood development. “[Society feels] that the first five or six years are the parents’ responsibility and only when then they reach school should society should be invested,” said Waxer.
Societal issues have to be tackled on a grand scale and usually require political assistance, she said, but there are issues Jasper’s community can address in order to better assist early childhood development.
One of her goals is to make Jasper more welcoming to those who are also new to Canada. “They may not be accessing the services and they may have different cultural norms around childcare, and they may not yet feel welcome to use all the services.”
She intends to write funding proposals to the government and engage more with the Prenatal to Preschool Collaborative Action Team and recruit a broad range of community members.
“It’s all of our work to ensure we have a community that’s suitable for everyone.”
