-Government money for programs disappearing-
OSOYOOS TIMES- December 5, 2007-
By Maureen ParriottrnOsoyoos Times
Something disturbing is happening to young children in the South Okanagan.
Many are arriving for their first day in kindergarten less prepared intellectually, emotionally, socially and physically than in years past. These children are termed vulnerable and at risk by school personnel. They often go on to do poorly in their academic careers and to have behavioural problems throughout their lives.
This concern was expressed by Penticton's Patricia Gregory, project coordinator of the Understanding the Early Years program, who spoke to the Osoyoos chapter, or table of Communities for Kids recently. Her topic was entitled, How Well Does Your Community Support Young Children?rnCommunities for Kids, Understanding the Early Years and a third program, Success by Six, are a coalition of province-wide initiatives designed to promote optimal development for children from birth to age six. They teach parenting skills, increase family and community awareness of what children need, and encourage communities to provide those things through networking and fundraising.
Gregory spoke in Oliver, Keremeos and Osoyoos on successive nights to relay the results of assessments done by the South Okanagan Similkameen school districts. Teachers complete the results in February of a child's kindergarten year and measure developmental readiness by looking back at early development and ahead to future performance.
The assessment addresses five areas: physical health and well-being, social competence, emotional maturity, language and cognitive development, and communications skills and general knowledge. Therntests have been done four times in the past several years.
They reveal that Osoyoos kindergartners' average scores have dropped in all areas except emotional maturity, which has remained fairly steady.
Communications skills and general knowledge have suffered the greatest decrease.
Social competence and cognitive development went from a standing in the top 20 per cent to the second lowest provincially.
Physical health and well-being went from the top 20 per cent to the lowest 20 per cent in the province.
What's happened to cause these changes?rnThere has been a shift in how the government treats young children and community programs, Gregory said.
There is no money available through the federal government anymore. It's a real blow to the programs supporting children and communities. One result is that there simply aren't enough quality day-care centres to go around.rnOsoyoos once had 15 day-care providers; now there are only two. Providers have moved away, gone into other work or have died.
The lack of replacements is due to the stress of the work as well as the low pay.
Even though funding was recently made available for day care by the province, eligibility requirements were changed, making it unavailable to many who need it.
Family dynamics have changed as well, Gregory said. There are not as many intact families as in the past and there may be no extended family nearby or parents work. And the South Okanagan has one of the highest poverty rates in B.C.
What solutions are available to increase young children's competencies, especially if they are among the 10 per cent who are already at risk by the time they enter school?
Community, community, community, agreed Gregory and the group.
Gregory said physical health is supported by having access to safe outdoor play spaces, organized recreational programs and food security.
Social competence is improved by access to quality day care, preschool, and structured community programs, as well as parent education programs, neighborhood cohesion and localized access to services.
Emotional maturity increases with access to diverse environments such as mixed housing developments that allow children to interact with others from a variety of socio-economic and cultural backgrounds.
Again, quality child care and preschool are essential, Gregory said.
Language and cognitive development benefit from literacy programs that include both young children and adults. Accessible library services and partnerships between early-childhood development programs and the school district allows older children to help younger ones.
Communications skills and general knowledge are partly related to what proportion of a community's population speaks English as a second language, as well as a child's access to rich oral-language environments.
All these variables brought the meeting around to the intital question, How Well Does Your Community Support Young Children?rnThis is a question Osoyoos must now consider.
