More than one in three kindergarten children in B.C. are entering school with challenges in one or more core areas of development a rate higher than ever recorded in the province, according to new research from the Human Early Learning Partnership (HELP) based out of UBC's School of Population and Public Health (SPPH).
The report, Early Years Disrupted, offers the first comprehensive look at how young children are doing since the COVID-19 pandemic. Researchers measured the developmental health of 33,625 B.C. children in their kindergarten year by surveying their teachers. The findings reveal that 35.8 per cent of children scored below established benchmarks in at least one core area of development, up from about 32 per cent before the pandemic.
"This is the highest vulnerability rate we have seen since we began collecting this data 24 years ago," said Dr. Martin Guhn, associate professor at HELP and SPPH. "The pandemic disrupted many aspects of family life employment, child care, social interactions and community supports and we are now seeing the ripple effects in classrooms."
