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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Education professionals, elders, community leaders and other residents are meeting with representatives from the Department of Education, Culture and Employment and the Department of Health and Social Services this week to identify priorities for a renewed early childhood development framework.

Dr. Stuart Shanker attended the three day conference on the Early Childhood Development framework as one of the experts in early childhood development on Tuesday. - Danielle Sachs/NNSL photo

The framework discussed during the three-day conference at the Explorer Hotel addresses research on early childhood development, information gathered from community meetings, surveys and roundtable discussions aimed at achieving priorities for future early childhood development already identified in the current framework, according to the education department.

While the first day of the conference Tuesday heard from on a panel of three experts in the field of child development, Dr. Stuart Shanker, Dr. Linda Chamberlain and Dr. Clyde Hertzman, the rest of the conference focused on presentations and reports from online surveys and the elders sharing circle.

The challenges of providing increased early childhood care in the NWT are based a lot on the remoteness of communities, but those challenges can be overcome, said Health and Social Services Minister Tom Beaulieu.

Beaulieu said communication was one of the most important aspects of the conference.

"I think with the small communities and getting the word out to our people, the (non-governmental organizations) and other government departments, we're present in every community," he said.

One of the highlights for the minister was the panel of experts that presented on Jan. 22.

"The presenters each flowed along the same line," said Beaulieu.

"They covered very essential things that we need to know in our territory to develop our childhood programs."

Hertzman said knowledge he has gained through working with child development in B.C. applies across the board.

"It's generic lessons. It's pointing out that everywhere in Canada where we've been monitoring the state of early childhood development you end up seeing excess vulnerability," he said.

"We've learned a lot about how communities can act to improve the state of development but it's difficult for communities to go it alone without financial support from provincial, territorial or even the federal government."

The key to successful early childhood development in the North hinges on sharing resources and information through all the communities, said Hertzman. Which becomes an issue when looking at internet access.

"Bandwidth limitations are the biggest crime here," he said.

"You can have world-class video conferencing capabilities in each community but it just doesn't work out, that's what's needed to share resources and information."

Beaulieu said lack of resources was one of the main factors holding back early childhood development in the North.

"We're lagging behind, like the rest of the country, but now we're moving forward with more resources," he said.

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