Kindergarteners assessed as vulnerable in emotional maturity: Bexar County*, 2020

Source: Transforming Early Childhood Community Systems; Early Development Instrument (EDI), 2020. *306 census tracts used for analysis

The Early Development Instrument (EDI) is a population measure of how young children are developing in communities. A child is considered “Vulnerable” when their domain score is at or below or equal the 10th percentile of the national EDI dataset. The EDI measures five domains of early childhood development including emotional maturity. Emotional maturing includes the ability to think before acting, a balance between too fearful and too impulsive, an ability to deal with feelings at the age-appropriate level, and empathetic response to other people’s feelings (for more details see https://edi.offordcentre.com/researchers/domains-and-subdomains/).

The number of Bexar County ISDs adopting the assessment has increased each year. In some cases, dramatically changing the demographic mix of children assessed. Those changes make trending outcomes from the EDI problematic. In order to accurately trend this indicator and preserve the time series, a baseline geography was set as the 245 tracts assessed in 2013. In addition, the 70% representation criteria prescribed by EDI was applied to the geography as a whole rather than being applied to each individual tract.

All quantitative data and narrative related to the data on this page was prepared by CI NOW for ReadyKidSA.

Social-emotional development in young children encompasses how young children feel about themselves, how they behave and how they relate to people close to them, such as caregivers, teachers, and peers. Although infant and early childhood mental health are often used in the same way, the term social-emotional development illustrates the importance of prevention and early intervention. There is strong evidence linking social-emotional health in the early childhood years (birth to 6) to subsequent school success and health in preteen and teen years, and to long term health and wellbeing in adulthood. However, research also shows that effective programs that address social-emotional health early in life can promote resilience and actually prevent mental health problems later in life. (National Center for Children in Poverty, 2009)

For more information see: http://www.nccp.org/publications/pdf/text_901.pdf

Bexar County, 2020

Policy

• Because it has the capacity to address so many factors relating to a delay in emotional maturity, including the ability to administer assessments that identify delays, determine appropriate interventions, and connect children and families to resources, encourage a policy shift that provides universal Pre-K (2 tables selected)

Direct Service

• Recognizing that policy shift required to enact universal Pre-K is a long term process, a solution that can happen in the more immediate term is to expand home visiting programming, either through year-round models or other models, and ensure that the Home Visiting Program services are tailored to the actual needs of parents/caregivers.

System Change

• Partner with hospitals and health care systems so that new parents and caregivers receive information about developmental milestones during the hospital stay following delivery, as well as where they can go for needed services.
• To promote better early childhood health, expand mental screenings for children through two-pronged approach: by building capacity through training across the systems who interact with young children, and by increasing awareness amongst publics about the value of having children assessed early.
• Ensure that all systems serving children across the city and county have the technical knowledge and skill to appropriately identify and respond to child and family needs and require trauma-informed care as a core component to staff training competencies and service delivery.
• Evaluate how effective the transition points are between the multiple systems impacting children and families, and then enhance the reliability and consistency of the referral and response process amongst those systems.
• Standardize practices amongst service providers so that early identification is consistent, and engage parents more efficiently by rethinking parent classes in ways that take the education out to parents, rather than waiting for parents to come to classes