This year the Western Rocky View Parent Link Centre has made it their mission to increase awareness of the importance of early mental and social-emotional development.
This has become even more relevant with the release of a study in Alberta that found that ‘a significant percentage of Cochrane children are experiencing emotional difficulties by the time they reach kindergarten.’
The research study is called the Early Child Development Mapping Project (ECMap) and was conducted through Alberta Education.
The ECMap looked at five different developmental domains – emotional maturity, communication and general knowledge, physical health and wellbeing, social competence and language and thinking skills.
“Pretty much, out of the five domains, one out of four kids are struggling in our community,” said Kim Krawec Parent Link Centre coordinator, adding that Cochrane fell slightly below the provincial average in the study.
The Parent Link Centre is a provincial initiative started by the Province of Alberta 10 years ago. It is designed to help families with children from birth to six years of age play, develop and learn.
Krawec said there has been a lot of research on brain development over the last decade that has found that from birth to six years old is the most critical time for brain development.
“What kids learn and the environment that they are in, whether it is positive or negative, actually shapes them for the rest of their lives. What happens in those early years affects your ability to cope, how you manage stress, metal health, physical health – all of that is impacted from those very first years,” Krawec said.
Emotional maturity, one of the five domains, is very important, according to a recent Parent Link newsletter, describing it as the ‘foundation for building healthy, stable and solid relationships with others.’
The newsletter goes on to say that emotional maturity is ‘the ability to identify, manage and express emotions appropriately.’
Krawec said there could be a variety of factors explaining why Cochrane and the province saw the results they did in the study.
She said one reason was that parents are under more financial stress than ever before. Another reason could be that parents who have recently relocated to the area could be facing a certain amount of isolation, where they don’t have extended family here to support them.
Krawec also pointed out a shift in the past few years where kids are more involved in registered, structured activities and are missing the opportunity for free play.
The Parent Link Centre offers not only free play, but also a number of developmental play programs six days a week.
“We are one-stop-shopping for any family that has a child between the age of birth to age six,” she said.
Some of their programs include parent education, developmental screening, Triple P (Positive Parenting Program), parent resource library, family support and rural programs in Bearspaw, Beaupre and Bragg Creek.
“I had a mom come in for the toddlers’ group and said that her two year old now knows the difference between happy, mad and sad, and that was just because of the little resource on emotions that we gave to her,” said Tessa Davidson, an early childhood educator at the Parent Link Centre.
The number of people taking advantage of the services is definitely growing, according to Krawec, who said that 2,305 people accessed the centre in 2006 and it grew to 14,796 in 2014.
The programs at the centre are completely free of charge and while drop-ins are welcome, people must register for the parent education courses. All of their programs are listed in the Cochrane Program and Activity Guide. For more information call 403-851-2265.
