The Communication Skills and General Knowledge domain refers to a child’s
effective communication with others rather than correctness. The child must be
able to understand others as well as communicate ideas and feelings in a way
that is understood. More specifically, it assesses a child’s ability to clearly
communicate one’s own needs and understand others; clear articulation; active
participation in story-telling (not necessarily with good grammar and syntax)
and; interest in general knowledge about the world.

Table 22 is a description of children’s abilities within a certain percentile range in
the Communication Skills and General Knowledge domain. For example,
children scoring above the 75th percentile are considered to be very ready for
school in this particular domain.

Analysis of the Communication Skills and General Knowledge domain by
neighbourhood found that there were 21 neighbourhoods that scored below the
Ottawa 10th percentile and were thus considered “vulnerable” on the
Communication Skills and General Knowledge domain. The six neighbourhoods
with the highest percentage of children in the lowest 10th percentile were, in
ascending order: Centre Town and Lowertown (both at 23.3%), Carlington
(25.0%), Dalhousie (25.0%), Nepean North (27.3%) and Overbrook (29.9%). Please
see Table 23 for a complete list of “vulnerable” neighbourhoods.

There were also many neighbourhoods in Ottawa that were doing extremely
well on the Communication Skills and General Knowledge domain. A total of 20
neighbourhoods scored above the Ottawa 75th percentile and were thus
considered “very ready for school”. The five neighbourhoods that had the highest
percentage of children in the top 25th percentile were, in ascending order:
Goulburn (49.7%), Cumberland (51.0%), Blackburn Hamlet (53.8%), Glen Cairn
(55.8%) and Glebe (62.6%). Please see Table 23 for a complete list of “very ready
for school” neighbourhoods.

Language and Cognitive Development /Communication Skills and General Knowledge/Considerations