Healthy Child Manitoba

Early Development Instrument (EDI )

Schools and communities working together for Manitoba’s children.

The first 5 years of children’s lives are very important in preparing them for future success in school and life. Ensuring Manitoba children get the best start in life is one of the key reasons we use the Early Development Instrument (EDI).

What is the EDI?

• The EDI is a questionnaire that measures Kindergarten children’s readiness for school across several areas of child development.
• The EDI measures how a community of Kindergarten children is doing compared to children in other communities or provinces.
• The EDI is never used to assess individual children.

Why is the EDI important?

• We need to know how Manitoba’s children are doing, so that we can best support healthy child development.
• The EDI is used to help communities identify their strengths and needs so they can best support early childhood development.

How is the EDI collected?

• Once every two years, Kindergarten teachers complete the EDI questionnaire on the children in their classroom. This occurs in early spring time.
• If parents wish to withdraw their child from the EDI collection, they may do so.

 

What information does the EDI tell us?

The EDI tells us how children are doing in the following areas of child development:

• physical health and well-being
• social competence
• emotional maturity
• language and thinking skills
• communication skills and general knowledge

What do we do with the EDI results?

The EDI results are shared with:

• Schools and School Divisions including school boards, teachers, administrators and resource workers
• Communities including parents, parent child coalitions, early childhood educators, community members, service providers, and policy makers

Access to EDI results help communities make informed decisions about how to support the development of their children, so that all children fully benefit from their first school experiences.