The Early Child Development Mapping Project (ECMap) was contracted by Alberta Education for a five-year period (ending in 2014). The project gathered and analyzed information about early childhood development in Alberta and built community capacity to support families and young children.
The project used the Early Development Instrument (EDI) on more than 70,200 kindergarten-aged children across Alberta. Community coalitions received the data and worked to raise public awareness about the importance of the early years.
The Early Development Instrument (EDI)
The EDI is a standardized tool that measures the development of populations of five-year-old children. Kindergarten teachers fill out questionnaires on the development of each child in their classroom and the results are looked at as whole, not on an individual basis. The EDI has been to gather information from over 300,000 kindergarten children across Canada.
The EDI looks at five areas of development:
The EDI scores of each child fall into one of three categories:
North Rocky View's Results (includes Airdrie)
Area of Development |
Developing Appropriately |
Experiencing Difficulty |
Experiencing Great Difficulty |
Physical health and well-being |
74% |
13.9% |
12.1% |
Social competence |
72% |
13% |
15% |
Emotional maturity |
74.3% |
16.1% |
9.5% |
Language and thinking skills |
79.5% |
12.2% |
8.4% |
Communications and general knowledge |
63.5% |
23.7% |
12.7% |
Pathways to Success - North Rocky View Community Coalition
Early childhood development (ECD) community coalitions are groups of individuals who have come together to actively promote positive early development. The North Rocky View coalition includes representation from organizations such as: Rocky View Schools, Community Links, Alberta Health Services, and Airdrie Public Library.
First 2000 Days Early Childhood Development Network
The First 2000 Days Network is a collaboration of individuals and organizations joined by a common goal: All children from conception to six are supported by family and community in order to reach their potential.