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The Daily. Thursday, October 14, 1999

National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth: school component

Results from analyses of data from the latest release of the National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth suggest that children who are enrolled in early childhood programs and day-care centres appear to get a head start in school over youngsters who stay at home with a parent.

The analysis compared the level of performance in kindergarten of two groups of children. The first group included those who, during the 1994/95 school year, attended an early childhood program, a day-care centre or received care from a paid worker such as a nanny, a non-relative or a relative other than the mother or the father of the child. The second group of children were those who stayed at home with a parent, who in 90% of the cases was their mother. Two years later, the children in the first group were faring better at school.

About 40% of children who were in an early childhood program at ages 3 and 4 were judged by their teachers as being near the top of their kindergarten class in communication skills, as opposed to only 25% who did not participate in such programs. Also, 38% of these children were rated by their teachers as being near the top of their kindergarten class in learning skills, compared with 24% of kindergarten children who did not attend an early childhood program.

The study also found that higher proportions of children who attended early childhood programs were able to write a simple sentence, compare numbers and understand simple concepts of time, such as "today", "summer" and "bedtime". These relationships held true regardless of the education of the child's mother or the income of the household.

Note to readers This release is based on data from the first and second cycles of the National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth (NLSCY), a joint project of Human Resources Development Canada and Statistics Canada. It examines the influence of early childhood education and parental involvement on a child's academic performance. Specifically, it examines the critical transition that children make from home to school. The NLSCY is a comprehensive survey examining a wide variety of important factors that influence the development of children. It collects information every two years on the same children as they grow up as well as information on the environment in which they live, learn and play. The second cycle of the survey, which took place in 1996/97, collected information on approximately 20,000 children from newborns to 13-year-olds. It gathered information on aspects of their lives such as demographics, socio-economic background, child health and development, behaviour, relationships, education, literacy, leisure activities, family functioning and parenting, child care arrangements and family custody history. This information is collected through a variety of methods: interviews with the person most knowledgeable about the child (most often the child's mother), tests administered to the children in schools, and questionnaires completed by both the children (those aged 10 to 13) and by the child's teacher and school principal. The second cycle provided information on the behaviour and educational functioning of a sample of 10,600 Canadian children, with teachers providing information on 8,600 of them. Statistics Canada would like to thank the children, parents, teachers and school officials who are participating in the NLSCY. Without their collaboration, this unprecedented source of insight into child development in Canada could not exist.

The beneficial effects of participation in early childhood programs carried over to Grade 1. Four- and five-year-old children who attended an early childhood program in 1994/95 were 1.4 times more likely to be rated by their teachers as being near the top of their class in mathematics achievement in Grade 1 in 1996/97 than those who had stayed at home with a parent. These results held true even after taking into account the income of the child's household and the education of the person most knowledgeable about the child, who in most cases was the mother.

Attending kindergarten did not appear to have the same impact on the later academic performance of children as did attendance in an early childhood program. The youngsters who were attending an early childhood program in 1994/95 performed better in mathematics and writing, and generally had higher overall academic achievement in Grade 1 in 1996/97 compared with those who were enrolled in a kindergarten class in 1994/95.

Enrolment in an early childhood program influenced by social factors

In 1994/95, about half of all 2- to 3-year-old children attended an early childhood program.

Mothers who completed a high school education or higher were more likely to enrol their children in early childhood programs. Children whose mothers held a post-secondary diploma or degree were nearly twice as likely to have their children attend an early childhood program compared with those children whose mothers did not graduate from high school.

Similarly, children from households where the total household income is $40,000 or more were three times more likely to attend an early childhood program compared with children from families with household incomes of less than $20,000.

Reading to children has a substantial positive impact on academic skills

Reading to children more than once a day has a substantial positive impact on their later academic skills.

Children aged 2 to 3 who were read to several times a day did substantially better in kindergarten at the age of 4 and 5 than youngsters who were read to only a few times a week or less.

Children who were read to several times a day were 1.6 times more likely to be rated by their teachers as being near the top of their kindergarten class in learning skills. They were also 2.3 times more likely to be near the top of their class in communication skills.

Furthermore, children who had early exposure to books and reading were also better at performing mathematical tasks. In kindergarten, these children were twice as likely to be able to compare numbers than those who were read to less often, 2.6 times as likely to recognize geometric shapes and twice as likely to know simple concepts of time when they were aged 4 and 5.

This relationship was observed regardless of the education of the child's mother and the income of the child's household. Further analyses of the current and future cycles of NLSCY data will allow us to investigate the long-term effect of reading on children's performance.

The complete results of the analysis in this release can be found in the report titled, "From home to school - How do Canadian children cope" on Statistics Canada's Web site (www.statcan.ca) under Products and services then Downloadable publications (free).

For more information regarding the analysis or to enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact Jackie Yiptong-Avila (613-951-0335; jackie.yiptong@statcan.gc.ca) or Garth Lipps (613-951-3184; lippgar@statcan.gc.ca), Centre for Education Statistics.

For general information about the National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth, contact Sylvie Michaud (613-951-9482; michsyl@statcan.gc.ca), Special Surveys Division or Allen Zeesman (613-946-5713; allen.zeesman@spg.org), Human Resources Development Canada.

Data are also available through custom tabulations. For more information about tabulations and other products and services, contact Tamara Knighton (613-951-7326; fax: 613-951-7333), Special Surveys Division.

Percentage of children near the top of the Grade 1 class

1996/97