Children in Southeast Saskatchewan are not reaching school age with the skills one would expect in some key educational areas.
That was the results released Wednesday when the 2010 Community Mapping Study, part of the Southeast Saskatchewan Understanding the Early Years Project was released. The results were part of a three-year study looking at children's readiness to start school, explained Ruth Barker, Project Coordinator for the UEY Southeast Saskatchewan Project.
The region involved in the study is a large one extending north to south of Porcupine Plain, and south to the U.S. border, encompassing 10 school divisions, and three health regions.In total 1,815 children, 74 with special needs were part of the study.
"I think what's significant about the data is its' local," said Barker.
Barker said the study allows a clearer picture of the preparedness of children for school locally, and allows for comparisons with established Canadian averages.
The study covered "a number of different areas of development," said Barker.
In several of the areas studied, children in the area are lacking development, said Barker.For example, 27.2 per cent of the children in the study did not have the gross and fine motor skills expected of a child about to start school.
"They can't hold a pencil properly, or they don't climb stairs at an expected development level," said Barker.
When it comes to language skills, 22.3 per cent of the children had not reached the expected development level, in terms of counting, or vocabulary.
"Twenty-four per cent were not doing well in literacy. They don't know more than 10 letters," she said.
Numeracy is also lacking.
"They can't count to 20 when they start school," said Barker.
In the areas of numeracy, literacy and vocabulary "our children scored very poorly compared to the Canadian norms," said Barker, adding the Canadian numbers are not particularly good either.
Ideally the children falling short in the various skills would be no more than 10 per cent, said Barker.
The study looked at areas beyond learned facts and figures, to include elements of behaviour, and again there were shortcomings.
Barker said 33.8 per cent of the children did not show levels of compassion expected when another child was hurt, or crying,
"They don't go to help," she said.
There were areas where children in the area did well, said Barker, showing strong social skills, and skills in regards to interacting with others.
Overall 96.1 per cent of children (1744 children in total) almost always show respect for others, for property and follow rules and take care of materials, accept responsibility for actions and show self-control, she said.
Barker also noted, children in the Southeast are performing at or better than the Canadian norm of 75 per cent in three domains: physical health and well-being, social competence, and emotional maturity. They are slightly below the national average in language and cognitive development and communication skills and general knowledge.
In terms of Yorkton specifically, children in the city fare better than the overall region.
While the regions scores reflected 25.4 of the children vulnerable in one area of development, only 17.9 per cent of the children in the city of Yorkton were vulnerable. This is less than 1 in 5 compared to the regional 1 in 4, said Barker.
The study also looked at elements of parenting.
Barker said 16.9 per cent of parents were taking what was deemed a "negative approach to parenting."
Barker explained those parents lacked a ruleset for their children, or lacked appropriate discipline.
"There was a low level of rules and balances and guidelines," said Barker. "That's a huge concern."
That said 49 per cent of parents are offering appropriate parenting skills, said Barker.
Still, Barker said the study shows many parents need help.
"There's a need for us to do more work around supporting parents, educating parents," she said.
Barker said using the study to develop programs to address the shortfalls is the next step."It's developing some plan of how you can move forward to change these scores," she said.
Improving the skill set children has as they reach school age is important because children often never catch up if they start behind entering school.
"Children doing poorly when they start school it affects their ability to be successful in life," said Barker. She said statistically 70 per cent of students who start school behind "continue to do poorly throughout life."
That means creating programming to help both parents and children to be better prepared to start school is critical.
"We want to ensure children have the best possible start in life," said Barker.
Understanding the Early Years (UEY) is a research and community development initiative funded by Human Resources and Skills Development Canada. It is a national initiative that enables members of communities across Canada to better understand the needs of their young children and families so that they can determine the best programs and services to meet those needs.
