A Call to Action for Healthy Child Development
Executive Summary
Beginning before birth, the early childhood period is the most critical developmental phase of human beings. Experiences in early childhood, both positive and negative, set the trajectory for lifelong learning, behaviour, health, and well-being. Several factors related to the environments in which children are born, live, and learn interact to influence their development. Intervening early to improve factors that are modifiable can improve a child's future.
In the KFL&A community, several initiatives and agencies already exist that aim to improve healthy child development. KFL&A Public Health has recently created a healthy child development strategy that identifies three priorities: improving prenatal and birth outcomes; enhancing parenting capacity and parent-child relationships; and fostering the creation of supportive environments in which children grow up, live, and learn.
The purpose of this report is to share key findings that have emerged from local data with providers of health care, social services, early learning programs, and child care, as well as relevant policy and decision makers. Overall, the aim is to support community stakeholders and to spur collaboration across sectors in the planning, delivery, and evaluation of programs and services for expecting parents, children, and families. While many factors contribute to healthy child development, this report focuses specifically on those related to health during the preconception, prenatal, and postpartum periods, as well as positive parenting, and the results of the Early Development Instrument (EDI).
According to the 2015 EDI results for the KFL&A area, 30.1% of children were vulnerable in one or more developmental domain by the age of five, and this proportion has increased since 2011. Now is the time for our community to come together and to work collaboratively to improve healthy child development.
This is a call to action for all agencies whose role is to help children and families:
Intervene early
Children who are introduced to supports earlier are more likely to have better health outcomes.
Plan strategically
Ensure that goals of your initiatives are clear and purposeful, and that the appropriate activities are selected to reach your goals.
Collaborate with your neighbours
Collaboration within and across sectors will help to reduce gaps in services and support to families.
Strive for consistent messaging
Sharing the same message will help to reduce confusion and to increase support for parents and families.
Use a population health lens
Initiatives that target all families, while also considering the unique needs of vulnerable populations, will result in programs that make the biggest impact.
Measure success
Plan activities to monitor and to evaluate healthy child development initiatives, and look for opportunities to share data with partners within the community.
It takes a village to raise a child. By working together, we can help to improve healthy child development in the KFL&A area and to ensure that all children have a chance for a healthy future.
A snapshot of local data used in A Call to Action for Healthy Child Development is available for each of the following categories:
- Characteristics of the KFL&A community
- Preparing for pregnancy
- During pregnancy
- From birth to the first six months
- Parenting
- Preparing for the school years
- Where the numbers come from
A full reference list and a print or digital copy of the report is available through Child and Babytalk in KFL&A.