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Report Summary
The overall intent of this report is to allow the early childhood community in Ottawa to find new ways of creating optimal development irrespective of where children and their families live, or the social class to which they belong. As we know it, in order to make a meaningful improvement in the lives of children in a particular community, it is important to examine the connections between the environmental context in which children live and their developmental outcomes.
This report illustrates findings using a promising approach for improving policies and practices known as “ecological correlations”. This approach puts emphasis on the relationship between the socio-economic status (SES), the availability, accessibility and suitability of community resources, and neighbourhood rates of vulnerability (Kershaw et al, 2005). This approach will allow early childhood stakeholders in Ottawa to begin to establish links between factors such as neighbourhood services and resources, and risk and protective characteristics that influence child developmental outcomes. Furthermore, this report is an invitation for the Ottawa community to begin interpreting and making sense of the findings reported in the portraits, based on their valuable experiences and points of views.
In addition, this approach features a neighbourhood mapping strategy that illustrates ecological correlations. Such information is often extremely useful for policy makers and community planning.
The findings are presented in a portrait format corresponding to Best Start geographical planning areas in Ottawa.
Introduction: Early Childhood a Priority
Early Childhood Around the World:
Over the years, research from around the world has shown that the first few years of a child’s life set the stage for later developmental success in school and across the entire life course. During this marked period of psychological growth, children are simultaneously adjusting to the social/emotional, cognitive/language and physical developmental processes of early childhood. It is now widely recognized that, how a child develops across each of these dimensions, and how qualities of the environment that the child lives in, affect the child’s budding health, well-being, social and academic competencies.
Early Childhood in Canada:
In the last decade, Canadians have become more aware of the importance and the benefits of early childhood development and the gaps and issues affecting early childhood outcomes. So much so, that most recently, early childhood development and planning in Canada has become a concern to families and there is a need for public awareness and acknowledgement (Hertzman, p. 4, 2004). This is largely due to the advancement of the concept of school readiness and how children’s early experiences have a direct impact on their school readiness to learn. Research efforts are addressing the importance of how changes over time in the relationships between children and the qualities of the environments they live in, can predict future success in life and school (Offord Centre for Child Studies, 2005).
Early Childhood in Ottawa:
As a result, early childhood development has become a priority for the Ottawa community. School readiness is receiving increasing attention in many neighbourhoods which is a great start. A few early childhood initiatives have been formed to discuss and address early childhood planning and to implement policies in order to give all children the best start in life. However, the biggest challenge for the early childhood community has been to move towards models that link research, policy and practice.
Early Childhood Context in Ottawa
In order to provide the best opportunities for children to successfully adjust to school, professionals and family members need models of support that address policies based on evidence-based practice.
In the last few years, the Ottawa community, through its work with the Best Start Initiative, Success By 6 Ottawa, the Ottawa Network for Children, the Ministry of Community and Youth Services and the Program Effectiveness Data Analysis Coordinators (PEDACS), has shown a willingness to generate increased knowledge of the resources that will facilitate positive developmental outcomes for children. The Ottawa community is ready to integrate a model to help facilitate the link between research, policy and practice, and has had the opportunity to get familiar with the early childhood context in Ottawa on a number of occasions. Empirical evidence such as, socio-economic data, neighbourhood rates of vulnerability and the mapping of availability, accessibility, affordability and suitability of services in Ottawa, has been presented to community stakeholders.
Despite this level of willingness, a couple of challenges remain for the Ottawa community. The first challenge has been applying a framework that allows us to present the data in a holistic fashion all the while linking research, policy and practice. The second challenge has been to engage community stakeholders in a meaningful way and to ensure that all voices in the community are heard.
To address the two challenges, the Research and Evaluation Action Group (REAG) adopted the ecological correlations model in 2009, in order to present the data in a holistic fashion.
This report has been designed based on the ecological model and informs policy and practice for early childhood development (ECD). The findings have been organized into portraits, in order to guide community planning. The Program Effectiveness Data Analysis Coordinators of Eastern Ontario will continue to work with community partners to interpret the results presented in this report.
The 6 Main Features of this Report:
1.COMMUNITY RESOURCE: This report is community driven and has been designed to increase public awareness and understanding about the importance of early childhood development and the factors that influence it.
2. KNOWLEDGE MOBILIZATION: Community stakeholders are encouraged to use the findings to move research into community action. The “portraits”feature neighbourhood characteristics that tell a “story” about the early learning environment and the neighbourhood differences in Ottawa.
3. COMMUNITY PLANNING AND THE “WHAT’S NEXT”?: To facilitate the link between research and community action, we invite community stakeholders to use the page “What’s Next?” to build their community action plan.
4. ADVOCACY: Neighbourhood stakeholders are invited to use the information gathered from the “What’s Next?” section to identify priorities and potential action steps. Possible action steps might include:
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- Actively involving parents and community members; |
| - Identifying community key leaders; |
| - Documenting strategic conversations in the “What’s Next?” page; |
| - Developing potential recommendations for your community. |
What is the Ecological Correlation Model?
While numerous theoretical frameworks have emerged in psychological literature, the ecological theory has become one of the most widely used paradigms in the field. Ecological theory is among the first theories to integrate both individual and contextual factors. In the ecological model (Bronfenbrenner, 1977) the child is the centre point and develops and thrives on interactions between persons, family units, and the broader social context.
An ecological framework for early childhood development considers the multiple ways in which neighbourhood settings may impact early childhood development. The chances for successful early physical, social, emotional, cognitive and language development are strongly influenced by the environments in which children grow up, live and learn (Kershaw et al, 2005). Child developmental outcomes are influenced by the level of resources available in communities, by neighbourhood characteristics such as poverty, residential instability, lone parents and ethnic diversity and by how families and children use the resources available.
Research confirms that socio-economic status is important when looking at school readiness. Moreover, research has also shown that the risks to healthy child development are found across the entire socio-economic spectrum. The socio-economic status indicators selected in this report are based on previous research that indicates that they have an effect on the developmental outcomes of young children (Kershaw et al, 2005).
Hertzman et al. (2002) observe that: “In Canada, inequalities in child development emerge in a systematic fashion over the first five years of life, according to well-recognized factors: family income, parental education, parenting style, neighbourhood safety and cohesion, neighbourhood socio-economic differences and access to quality child care and developmental opportunities. By the age 5, a ‘gradient’ in early child development emerges, such that, as one goes from the families with the lowest to highest incomes, least to most parental education, and least to most nurturing and interactive parenting style, theaverage quality of early child experiences increases” (Hertzman et al, p. 3, 2002). |
The foundation of this current report is based on an “ecological correlations model” that focuses on the relationship between the socio-economic status (SES), the availibility, accessibility, affordability and suitability of services (CSI), and neighbourhood rates of vulnerability (EDI) (Kershaw et al, 2005). Neighbourhood rates of vulnerabilities are established using the EDI scores, and the neighbourhood risks are established based on the number of risk factors that a particular neighbourhood or community faces. Briefly stated, all of these interactions have an impact on children’s developmental outcomes and must be taken into consideration by parents and policy makers when planning for children. |
Indicators Featured in the Portraits:
Many factors can influence children’s developmental outcomes during the early years. Research has shown that neighbourhoods and communities where children grow and learn influence their development; they affect parents ability to provide a positive family environment and the ability of others in the community to support the development of children as they grow up. Recent research on early child development often talks about risk factors and protective factors. Risk factors can be linked to poor developmental outcomes in children, while protective factors can reduce risk levels. Protective factors are also known as “buffers” against risks and can help children get back on track.
In this report, only selected findings were chosen from a comprehensive set of data including socio-economic data, neighbourhood rates of vulnerability and the mapping of the availability, accessibility, suitability and affordability of services.See Data Tables: Table 1, Table 2, Table 3.
Interpreting the Portraits:
Research conducted on the ecological correlations model has shown examples of the relationships between the Social Risk Index indicators and the EDI domains.
The portraits have been designed to:
1. Access the state of Early Childhood Development (ECD) at the neighbourhood level for the Ottawa community.
2. Establish neighbourhood risks (SRI), vulnerabilities (EDI) and activities supporting children’s development.
3. Inform community development practices at the programming and policy levels.
Community stakeholders reviewing the report and portraits are encouraged to consider the relationship between the indicators stated here, our findings and their influence on early childhood development.
Click here to learn how to interpret the findings.
Summary of Findings on Neighbourhood Risk and Neighbourhood Vulnerability in Ottawa by Best Start Planning Area:
This report also establishes “NEIGHBOURHOOD RISK AND VULNERABILITY” based on the Social Risk Index and the EDI scores for the 50 neighbourhoods in Ottawa. We have divided the neighbourhoods in Ottawa into 4 groups based on the number of cumulative risks from the Social Risk Index and the rates of vulnerability based on the EDI scores. The Ottawa average was used as the “cut-off” score. In the strength and challenge column, each neighbourhood has been compared to the city average and a legend was assigned according to the score.
View the "Neighbourhood Risk and Vulnerability Rates" by Best Start Neighbourhood:
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