HomeWelcome to Agassiz- Harrison's Early Childhood Homepage
The Early Years
A critical time in a child’s life…
Did you know that around 90% of the brain’s growth occurs by age 5? Conception to age six is a time of incredible change and growth during which young children develop language and motor skills, and emotional and social attachments. This makes the early years a critical time in a child’s life.
Proper care and nurturing during this time can help children reach their full potential and make them less likely to abuse drugs, drop out of school, have health problems, or become involved in crime, as they grow into teens and adults. This has implications not just for individual families but for communities. Early childhood development is an issue relevant to us all.
There is an ongoing assessment of early child development in British Columbia being done by the University of British Columbia, in conjunction with community networks and school districts in British Columbia.
A key component of this project is the Early Development Instrument (EDI), a province-wide survey of the developmental health of five-year olds. It measures whether a child is mentally, physically, socially, and emotionally ready to succeed in school.
So how are Agassiz & Harrison doing? According to the University of BC’s study, our communities are doing well in relation to other communities in the Fraser Health Authority region. And our EDI scores are below the provincial percentage of 25% of vulnerable children that aren’t ready to succeed in school by age six.
However, Agassiz and Harrison still have more than 20% of its children going to school ready to fail. Furthermore, our communities only recently achieved the significant decrease in vulnerability that pushed us under the 25% level.
What can we do? To ensure success in school it’s critical that children receive the proper nurturing, stimulation, and nutrition at an early age. Parents that are active and involved in their children’s upbringing through loving, listening, talking, reading, supporting, and teaching will help their children the most.
Parents should see preschool programs as learning opportunities and take advantage of the ones that are available in our community. At places like Family Place, children can work on their social skills among other things, and parents can brush up on their parenting skills in parenting workshops and learn more about nutrition in the Better Beginnings program.
Participation in storytime at the library can help instill a love of reading in children, while children can work on their physical health at the Fitness/Activity Centre. Preschool programs start children on the learning path.
Investing in a child builds a community. Community members should support local families and strive to create a safe, caring community that is child-friendly, with family-friendly recreation and family-friendly community planning. Supporting the local programs that are available to the 0-6 set is incredibly important.
Donations can also be made to initiatives such as Success By 6, a community based partnership working to improve services for young children and families. Success By 6 has been active in securing funds for preschool programs in our community in the following ways:
· Harrison Hot Springs Pre-School purchased learning materials and equipment with a Success By 6 grant. It also developed “family learning kits” for the families of the children.
· Success By 6 provided funding for Mother Goose Program training for community facilitators.
Click on the links above to direct yourself to information about us, our endeavours, the community, and programs and services.
Resources
For more information about the early child development project: http://www.earlylearning.ubc.ca/
For more information about Success by 6: http://www.successby6fraser.ca/
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