Understanding Early Childhood Development

An Early Development Instrument Dashboard

The Early Development Instrument (EDI) is a community-based measure of young children’s developmental health and early learning.  It reflects developmental outcomes and milestones achieved during the first five years of life and can assist in determining if and where additional supports, resources or assistance may be required. The results are available at both the regional level and for all 64 neighbourhoods in York Region.

Choose a topic below and then choose a neighbourhood from the drop down menu to filter the data. Some indicators may have additional data trends you can view.

Development Topics

Overview
A high-level view of children's development across York Region.
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Physical Health and Well-Being
Children's physical growth, health and readiness for daily activities.
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Social Competence
How children interact, cooperate and build relationships.
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Emotional Maturity
How children understand feelings and manage emotions.
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Language and Cognitive Development
How children communicate, learn and solve problems.
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Communication Skills and General Knowledge
How children share ideas and understand the world around them.
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Historical Trends
Explore how children's development has changed over time.
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Demographic Topics

Income and Employment
Explore income, employment and economic conditions in the community.
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Social and Mobility
Learn about population movement, family characteristics and knowledge of official languages.
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Diversity
Explore immigration, diversity and population characteristics across communities.
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Housing
Understand housing affordability and characteristics in the community.
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Regional Report

Open the report to review the Early Development Instrument (EDI) results at the regional level.

early development instrument report cover page

Additional Notes

About The Early Development Instrument (EDI)

As a population measure based on developmental rather than curriculum benchmarks, Early Development Instrument assesses five general areas of child development:

  • Physical Health and Well-Being  
  • Emotional Maturity  
  • Social Competence  
  • Language and Cognitive Development  
  • Communication Skills and General Knowledge  

Examining the Early Development Instrument by these areas helps identify developmental strengths and needs within a population of children.

Children's results in each developmental area are categorized as:  

  • On Track: Scoring at or above the 25th percentile
  • At Risk: Scoring between the 10th and 25th percentiles
  • Vulnerable: Scoring in the lowest 10th percentile

The dashboard provides York Region Early Development Instrument (EDI) results over the last seven implementations between 2003 and 2023.

The dashboard allows you to:

  • Explore children's developmental outcomes across the five developmental areas
  • View performance classifications (On Track, At Risk, and Vulnerable)
  • Identify areas of strength and opportunities for additional support
  • Examine trends over time
  • Compare results across communities and demographic groups

About Neighbourhoods

Early Development Instrument results are reported at the neighbourhood level to help communities better understand patterns in children's development and identify local strengths and needs. York Region's results are available for 64 neighbourhoods, which are custom geographic areas used for reporting and community planning purposes. These neighbourhoods provide a consistent geography for comparing results across communities and over time.

About Ontario Baseline

A snapshot of how young children in Ontario were doing when the Early Development Instrument was first collected across the province (2004-2006). It serves as a benchmark for comparing results over time and across communities.