Welcome to the Summer 2021 EDI New sletter
Dear all,
We hope that this newsletter finds you well. Our thoughts are with each of you and your families as we continue to navigate these challenging times. We remain committed to connecting with you and highlighting all the important initiatives that are exploring the impact of the pandemic on children and families.
In this newsletter we will highlight recent EDI publications and bring to your attention some important COVID-19 related studies.
Sincerely,
The EDI Team
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HiFLEC: Hidden Future Front Line: Educators’ Perspective on the Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Kindergarten Children
In this study we asked kindergarten educators about the realities of distance learning, their concerns for the return to school, as well as about their own health. The overarching aim of this study was to establish a scope of challenges during the transition to online learning for the youngest students, their families, and their educators.
The full reports and summaries can be found on our website.
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How are families coping?
Highlighting COVID-19 studies
Studies throughout Canada have highlighted the challenges facing families and children.
Ontario Parent Survey: aims to help understand how families and children have been affected by the lockdown due to Covid-19, and what services families and caregivers may need. Concerns are prolonged isolation alongside widespread economic hardship due to public health measures, such as physical distancing and staying-in-place policies enacted across all government levels. The evidence generated from the study will be used to help develop pragmatic and methodological strategies required for implementing online interventions in humanitarian settings like COVID-19 and possible future pandemics.
Investigators: Drs. Andrea Gonzalez and Harriet MacMillan.
Reports available here.
COVID-19 MARITIME FAMILY SURVEY:
was launched to study the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on Maritime families with young children, with the goal of informing the supports that families need during these trying times.
Principal Investigator: Dr. Jessie-Lee McIsaac
Summary Report available here.
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Special Issue "Early Child Development: From Measurement to Optimal Functioning and Evidence-based Policy"
In March 2021 a special issue from the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health was released with a selection of studies focused on early child development and a social determinants of health perspective to highlight the capability of the EDI to monitor children's developmental health and contribute knowledge in the area of early childhood development.
Contributions from Dr. Magdalena Janus et al: “Population-Level Data on Child Development at School Entry Reflecting Social Determinants of Health: A Narrative Review of Studies Using the Early Development Instrument.”
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EDI in Ontario - Cycles 1 to 5
Ontario Cycle 6 planned for Feb/Mar 2022 reminds us of the importance of monitoring trends over time. The information collected through the EDI helps us to understand the state of children’s developmental health by connecting the conditions of early childhood experiences to learning outcomes and future successes. Examining how children are doing over time is important for mobilizing stakeholders towards change. Focusing on strengthening the areas in which children are vulnerable allows schools, communities, and governments to make decisions on how to best support early development. Investigating how children’s developmental health is changing over time can also allow for evaluation and strategic planning around what is currently being done to support children and their families. This report provides trends across all five provincial collections of the EDI in Ontario. Please visit our website for additional information.
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Highlight Recent Publications
 There have been many significant publications rounding out the 2020 year and continuing into 2021. We will highlight a new below.
For the full list of all publications, please visit our EDI Bibliography page
1. Saunders, N. R., Janus, M., Porter, J., Lu, H., Gaskin, A., Kalappa, G. and Guttmann, A. (2021) Use of administrative record linkage to measure medical and social risk factors for early developmental vulnerability in Ontario, Canada. International Journal of Population Data Science, 6(1). doi: 10.23889/ijpds.v6i1.1407
In Ontario, EDI data was deterministically linked to a population health administrative data registry. The linkage process and the comparisons between the linked and unlinked populations were explored in addition to demonstrating how socio-demographic and medical risk factors contribute to early developmental vulnerability.
2. Halfon, N., Aguilar, E., Stanley, L., Hotez, E., Block, E., & Janus, M. (2020). Equity from the Start: Measuring Disparities in the Health Development of US Kindergartners. Health Affairs, 39:10, 1702-1709. doi: 10.1377/hlthaff.2020.00920
In 2019 Dr. Janus collaborated with UCLA on a paper entitled: Measuring Equity From The Start: Disparities In The Health Development Of US Kindergartners which was recently accepted and published in the Journal of Health Affairs. This study, the first EDI-based research that includes children’s race/ethnicity, explored the EDI data collected in the US and examined the inequalities in developmental health of kindergarten children in relation to their race/ethnicity and neighbourhood income data.
3. Davies, S., Janus, M., Reid-Westoby, C., Duku, E., & Schlanger, P. (2021). Does the early development instrument predict academic achievement in Ontario French schools? Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science / Revue canadienne des sciences du comportement. https://doi.org/10.1037/cbs0000285
Ontario’s French-language schools provide a further test of the EDI’s ability to predict school achievement, since they house a student population exposed to a different curriculum and language of instruction. This article pursues three research questions: (a) Does the EDI predict Grade 3 reading, writing, and math scores among Ontario French-language students? (b) Which EDI domains have the strongest effects? (c) Do any such patterns differ from those found among Ontario’s English-language schools? |
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Warmest congratulations to our friend and colleague, Dr. Anne Gadermann from HELP at the School of Population and Public Health at UBC, on her new appointment as Canada Research Chair Tier 2 in Bio-Eco-Social Determinants of Child and Youth Mental Health!
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