Following up on a 2017 report indicating that a rising percentage of children in the Eastern Townships are entering kindergarten “at risk” in one or more targeted development areas, Dr. Alain Poirier, the region’s interim Director of Public Health published a report on Tuesday with six key areas to focus on in the coming years to improve the health and well-being of the estimated 29,000 children aged 0-5 in the region. In 2017, 29% of kindergarten children in the region, or roughly 1,500 children, were judged to be vulnerable in at least one area of development such as social skills, emotional maturity, cognitive and language development at the time they entered the school system.
“We know that for two-thirds of these 1,500 children, vulnerability could have been avoided,” Poirier said. See full story in the Wednesday, Nov. 13 edition of The Record.
