Description of 2005-2006 Ottawa EDI Cohort/Special Needs Results/Neighbourhood Results by Domain

A separate analysis was undertaken for EDIs in which children were identified
as having special needs. It found that 86.0% of children with special needs
scored low on at least one domain and 75.1% scored low on at least two domains.
More specifically, it found that 54.7% of special needs children scored low on the
Physical Health and Well-Being domain, 59.3% scored low on the Social
Competence domain, 56.5% scored low on the Emotional Maturity domain,
54.7% scored low on the Language and Cognitive Development domain and
69.5% scored low on the Communication Skills and General Knowledge domain.
It was also found that 42.5% of children with special needs experienced multiple
challenges.

Questions about children’s special skills and special problems were also
analyzed for children with special needs. It was found that children with special
needs in Ottawa have between zero and five special skills with an average of 0.34
special skills per child. It was also found that children with special needs in
Ottawa have between zero and six special problems with an average of 1.74
problems per child. Most of the special problems identified were speech
impairment (40.4%), learning disability (30.9%), behavioural problems (27.4%)
and other (29.8%).