The University of BC’s Human Early Learning Project has found that 56% of kindergartners in the Bowl and South Fort George area are developmentally vulnerable.
The partnership surveys local kindergarten teachers about their students abilities and struggles. The study’s findings show that children are experiencing delays in a number of areas.
“Things like they can’t hold a crayon,” says Darrell Roze, executive director of the Prince George Child Development Centre. “They can’t climb stairs unaided, they can’t follow basic instructions, they can’t get along with their peers. One of the growing issue is there’s quite a few children who have basic social and emotional issues when they hit school.”
Roze says that’s cause for concern because this early learning period is the time when kids build up basic skills and can set their capacity for future learning.
“When a child hits kindergarten, there’s every possibility that child is going to be delayed for the rest of their life and they’re going to face unnecessary challenges. They’re going to cost their society in many different ways. They have a much higher likelihood of relying on social assistance, of developing chronic health conditions.”
He says those with social and emotional problems early on are more likely to end up in the criminal justice system as well.
About 10% of kids are expected to have special needs due to biological factors.
“Beyond that, we can assume they’re unnecessary delays – not biologically based. If that’s true, we have 46% of children in the South Fort George-Bowl area that are hitting kindergarten with unnecessary developmental delays.”
He says child development and therapy programs in the city are drastically underfunded. For every 10 kids the centre supports, another 6 that need help don’t get it due to a lack of resources.
“With our therapy program, I believe it’s been 24 years since we got our last substantive increase in staffing but during that time, we’ve at least doubled the number of people looking for support.”
Roze says therapy costs sit at around $3,000 per child per year but that initial investment is tiny compared to the costs that can be incurred later in life if no intervention takes place.
While developmental delays can be due to a wide variety of factors, the difference in the South Fort George-Bowl area is unclear. Other Prince George neighbourhoods – including neighbouring Heritage Hill-Ospika and Peden Hill – have numbers of developmentally vulnerable children much closer to the provincial average of 32%.
Something going on in the Prince George area you think people should know about?
Send us a news tip by emailing [email protected].
