The rising number of children with developmental vulnerabilities is troubling because without added supports they are more likely to struggle academically in later years and experience mental health problems as they grow up, researchers say.DARRYL DYCK/The Canadian Press
Reading challenges. Poor communication skills. Emotional immaturity. The number of children in kindergarten across Canada entering school with at least one developmental vulnerability has risen since the pandemic, and income inequality is likely to blame, says the lead author of a new report.
Researchers with the Offord Centre for Child Studies, a joint institute of McMaster University and Hamilton Health Sciences in Ontario, found that since the pandemic began, 28.5 per cent of children in kindergarten have at least one developmental vulnerability, compared to 27.3 per cent of kids in the pre-pandemic cohort.
The findings are based on data collected from teacher surveys of 500,000 children from two cohorts: those who were in kindergarten between 2017 and 2020, and another group who were in kindergarten between 2020 and 2023.
“The pandemic was a very important shock to child development, to parenting, to the economic prosperity of families,” said Magdalena Janus, the lead author of the report.
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Children were assessed on their ability to meet developmental expectations in areas including their physical health and well-being, communication skills, general knowledge, emotional maturity and their language and cognitive development.
The children who fall below certain thresholds established for areas of development are deemed vulnerable.
The rising number of children with developmental vulnerabilities is troubling because without added supports they are more likely to struggle academically in later years and more likely to experience mental health problems as they grow up, researchers say.
“When you think how stretched special services and counselling is already, when you think that an additional few thousand children will very likely show up not being able to cope in later grades, I think that’s really a call to wake up,” said Ms. Janus, who was a professor in the department of psychiatry and behavioural neurosciences at McMaster University during the research but has since moved to the University of British Columbia.
The report found one in three boys and one in five girls are entering school developmentally vulnerable in at least one key domain.
There is a clear link between economic disadvantage and the likelihood of a child having at least one developmental vulnerability, Prof. Janus said.
“The people on the highest end of disadvantaged are always doing worse,” she said. “Families who struggle probably can access less and fewer and fewer supports.”
Children living in the lowest-income neighbourhoods are twice as likely to be vulnerable in physical health, language and cognitive development, and communication skills as those in the highest income areas, according to the report.
Families living in low-income communities often lack access to supports for a child’s development, such as affordable child care, says Jessie-Lee McIsaac, an early childhood researcher at Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax.
Affordable child care not only supports a child’s development, it can also boost a family’s economic fortunes, Prof. Isaac said.
“If you can’t access child care then a parent can’t work,” she said.
It is harder for low-income families to access care now than it was prior to the pandemic in at least some parts of the country.
For example, in Ontario, a report from the Auditor-General released last fall found that enrollment in child care from low-income families has dropped by 31 per cent compared to 2019.
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More Canadians are also struggling with food insecurity, another factor that can contribute to a child having a developmental vulnerability.
In 2024, more than one-quarter of people living in Canada’s 10 provinces lived in a food-insecure household, according to Statistics Canada data. That represents 10 million people, including 2.5 million children.
It was the third straight year the number of people living in a food-insecure household increased, and another record high.
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Child poverty is also on the rise in Canada, with more than 800,000 children, representing more than 10 per cent of kids across the country, now living in poverty, according to Campaign 2000, non-partisan coalition dedicated to ending child and family poverty.
Social policy changes that help provide families with more supports are needed to combat the rising number of children struggling with development vulnerabilities, Prof. Janus said.
“The odds are stacked against children a little bit more than they used to be. There were more safety nets than there are now.”