ECD Webinar: School Success

Families Canada in partnership with Abilio, is excited to invite you to a new webinar in the popular ECD webinar series!  

About this event 

In this webinar, we will discuss the importance of preparing children for the demands of formal schooling during early childhood. The level of children’s development is a good predictor of future educational success. We will clarify the concept of “school readiness” and present the questionnaire used across Canada, the Early Development Instrument (EDI), which measures the cognitive and socio-emotional development of children in kindergarten. Evidence from Quebec studies will be presented, as well as factors associated with a child's vulnerability, i.e., the level of risk of encountering difficulties when starting school. Finally, we will identify preschool practices and contexts that promote better school readiness.

Who is presenting? 

Christa Japel holds a PhD in psychology from the Université de Montréal. She is an associate professor in the Department of Specialized Education and Training at the Université du Québec à Montréal. Her research interests focus on the various environments that have an impact on the psychosocial and cognitive development of young children, in particular the family context and daycare services. She has produced several publications on the quality of daycare services and 4-year-old kindergartens, as well as on vulnerable children at risk of school failure. She is a recognized expert both here and elsewhere in the field of early childhood education and care, and has contributed to the development of surveys conducted by Statistiques Québec and Statistics Canada. She has also developed, implemented, and evaluated several programs aimed at improving the quality of early childhood education and care services. Her program 'Les aventures de Mimi et ses amis' aims to improve the vocabulary of children from disadvantaged backgrounds, since the extent of their vocabulary in preschool is an important predictor of their learning to read and subsequent educational success.