The Early Development Instrument, or the EDI for short, is a questionnaire developed by Dr. Dan Offord and Dr. Magdalena Janus at the Offord Centre for Child Studies at McMaster University.
The EDI is a 103-item questionnaire completed by kindergarten teachers in the second half of the school year that measures children’s ability to meet age-appropriate developmental expectations in five general domains:
Why is the EDI important?
The Early Development Instrument was designed with the goal to provide a reliable, holistic, and relevant assessment of the developmental health (skills and behaviour) of children at the time of developmental transition from early development to school age. The EDI assesses a whole child through inclusion of five major areas of child development.
The results for individual children in a class are grouped for reporting. They are linked with neighbourhood characteristics to examine their association with social determinants of health across neighbourhoods, cities, provinces and countries.
The Early Learning Quality Initative is committed to using the EDI as more than a report—it is a tool that will inform professional learning and strengthen early learning practices across the community. Join us for in one of our future professional learning opportunities that will focus on the EDI domains and support children’s development in your program.
Thank you to Rachel Lewis ,Data Analysis Coordinator for the City of Kawartha Lakes for allowing us to use the slides for information for our community.
Early Learning Quality Initiative 