1 The Early Development Instrument: A Tool for Monitoring Children’s Development and Readiness for School

Children are born ready to learn, and their neurological system has a vast opportunity during the first stages of life, beginning in utero, to form connections—or lose connections—that children need to develop and grow. Unfortunately, without costly brain scans, one cannot determine to what extent a child’s brain has developed. We can, however, measure the progress and outcomes of early child development. Moreover, we can operationalize these outcomes to understand children’s readiness for school, drawing on the experience and data of researchers and practitioners who are most knowledgeable about child development. Monitoring children’s outcomes is especially important during their early years. Dr. Dan Offord, the founding Director of the Offord Centre for Child Studies, was a major leader in mental health and interventions for children. He tirelessly emphasized the importance of ensuring that initiatives for young children must do more good than harm, and programs for children must be available and accessible, especially to those who need them most. Implementation of early child development (ECD) programs is not sufficient in itself, even when programs are designed based on the best evidence of effectiveness. Implementation must be appropriate to the setting (families and communities) and must be complemented by th