McGill secures a $3.75 million donation to launch the Gold Centre for Early Child Development

McGill’s Faculty of Education received a $3.75 million donation to help establish the Daniel and Monica Gold Centre for Early Childhood Development. It aims to provide more clinical support, training, and resources for children with learning difficulties.

“What the vision of this gift is, is the understanding that it’s really important and can have a sort of long and lasting effect. If we can provide young children in early childhood the support and interventions they may need in order to ensure their successful development and their successful learning,” said Dr. Victoria Talwar, Canada Research Chair, McGill Department of Educational and Counselling Psychology in the Faculty of Education.

The sooner a child receives the support they need, the more likely they are to succeed at school and, ultimately, in life, experts say.

Currently, in Quebec, it can be a struggle for many families to get an assessment for their child or have access to the proper resources due to full waitlists.

“At the moment, there is such a critical need in the community. There are a lot of families who are waiting long periods of time trying to get on different lists to get help. Indeed, in our clinic, we often have to shut down our waiting lists because they get too large, and so now we’ll be able to provide more services and address more families’ needs,” said Talwar.

McGill says this donation from the Golds, who are alumni of the university, is invaluable.

It will also help enhance the capacity in their Psychoeducational and Counselling Clinic and create a new graduate certificate program for early childhood education intervention practitioners, which they hope will begin in fall 2025.

“Hopefully, we will be able to provide more education, more knowledge, more in-depth learning about early childhood development and where we can support children,” said Dr. Sheryl Smith-Gilman, Faculty Lecturer, McGill Dept. of Integrated Studies in Education.

“The early childhood years are often neglected. And, you know, many people think it’s fun, it’s play, but really, it’s such a critical stage of development. Indeed, we are in need of support in our schools, in our daycare centers, and in some of our agencies that work with young children, where there are language delays, where there are developmental delays, or where they are on the autism spectrum. We have to— we need support. And I know teachers need support, and I know that there is a gap in our schools,” she added.

“The earlier we can assess them and provide them with support, the more likely they are going to have sort of positive learning and positive development and increase their well-being as they get older,” said Talwar.

McGill’s Psychoeducational & Counselling Clinic assesses children for learning and developmental challenges. Families are served by graduate students supervised by licensed professionals, with fees based on a sliding scale. After assessment, children can receive psychoeducational support, typically through their school. The clinic has two main goals: providing services to the community, and training future psychologists.

The recent gift will fund an additional supervisor and more administrative staff. This will enable the clinic to stay open year-round and increase the number of assessments, as it currently closes every summer.

“We feel strongly in the transformative power of early intervention in terms of development and education,” say donors Daniel and Monica Gold in a McGill press release. “We want to contribute to giving all children the best start in life.”