Outcome
The Early Development Instrument (EDI) is a standardized assessment of
early child development. The EDI is conducted in the latter half of the
kindergarten year by a child’s school teacher. It provides a holistic
assessment of children’s development through 104 questions across five
domains: physical health and well-being, social competence, emotional
maturity, language and cognitive development, and communication skills.
The EDI has been shown to be psychometrically sound and a good predictor
of adult health, education and social outcomes. In British Columbia,
schools conduct the EDI in 3-year waves, so only approximately one third
of children are tested in a given year.
Our primary outcome was the total EDI score (/50), and secondary
outcomes included each of the two EDI sub-domain scores shown to be
strongest predictors of later school performance - the language and
cognitive development domain, and the communication skills and general
knowledge domain – as well as the binary indicators of ‘developmental
vulnerability’ and a designation of ‘special needs.’ A child was
considered to be developmental vulnerable if they had an EDI score that
was equal to or lower than the score corresponding to the 10th
percentile of all kindergarten children in one or more EDI sub-domain.
‘Special needs’ is a British Columbia Ministry of Education designation
associated with allocation of additional funding to help cover the costs
of additional staff, specialized learning materials, physical
accommodations or equipment, and assessments to enable a student to meet
their educational and social needs.