Faculty of Education The University of Hong Kong Early Childhood Development in the East Asia Pacific: Preliminary Findings from the East Asia Pacific – Early Child Development Scales (EAP-ECDS) Nirmala Rao * The University of Hong Kong *presented on behalf of the EAP-ECDS team 1
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Faculty of Education The University of Hong Kong
Early Childhood Development in the East Asia Pacific:
Preliminary Findings from the East Asia Pacific – Early Child Development Scales (EAP-ECDS)
Nirmala Rao * The University of Hong Kong
*presented on behalf of the EAP-ECDS team
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Faculty of Education The University of Hong Kong
Rationale for Developing the EAP-ECDS
1. Need to invest in young children
2. Emphasis on evidence-based decision making • What are the differences between children who attend
and those who do not attend early childhood programmes?
• How important is quality? • Which programmes should be scaled up?
To answer these questions, we need a tool to measure early childhood development but…
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Faculty of Education The University of Hong Kong
Rationale for Developing the EAP-ECDS
• There are no globally accepted tests for ECD • Culturally and contextually appropriate assessment
of ECD is important to: monitor child development in the context of poor
school readiness and learning outcomes track the development of vulnerable and at-risk
children analyse the impact of early childhood policies and
programmes on children
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Faculty of Education The University of Hong Kong
Phase I
• To select items to be used in a tool to assess early child development in the EAP region
– These items should be based on the Early Learning and
Development Standards (ELDS) of countries in the region
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Faculty of Education The University of Hong Kong
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Faculty of Education The University of Hong Kong
Established an Indicator Database
1738 indicators for children aged 3, 4, and 5 from seven countries’ ELDS
Developed categories + sub-categories
7 categories
Determined # of indicators in each category
Based on the proportion of the total # of indicators in each category
Development of the Items
Converted indicators to items
Form a 100-item measure
Selected indicators in each category
To construct a 100-item regionally-sensitive measure
Focus on rationale and process
Faculty of Education The University of Hong Kong
Converting indicators to items
Code Sub-category Indicator selected Countries Ages
LA16
Draws/writes without an example
Draws a human figure (head, eyes, mouth, trunk, arms, legs, etc.) without prompts
Philippines(4); Cambodia(5); Thailand(4;5);
4, 5
Faculty of Education The University of Hong Kong
Materials 1. A piece of paper; A pencil
Procedure Assessor asks child to draw a complete picture of him / herself.
Instruction Here is a pencil and paper. I would like you to draw a complete picture of yourself standing.
Scoring Criteria and Comments
Head and/or trunk plus one other feature. Recognizable arms and/or legs. Recognizable hands and/or feet. One recognizable facial feature (eyes, mouth, nose, or ears). At least one additional recognizable facial feature (eyes, mouth, nose, or ears)
□ 0 □ 1 □ 0 □ 1 □ 0 □ 1 □ 0 □ 1 □ 0 □ 1
Faculty of Education The University of Hong Kong
Phase II: Pilot studies
1. To field-test items in three countries 2. To modify the Scales based on the results and
feedback 3. To develop a revised version of the Scales which can
be used in many countries in Phase III
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Faculty of Education The University of Hong Kong
Pilot study Mongolia
Fiji China
Send draft to countries
Field trials Translation & checking
Modification
Field Consultancy Support
Faculty of Education The University of Hong Kong
Questions for Phase II
• Evaluate the effectiveness of the Scales – Reliability
• Cronbach’s alpha: > .70
– Validity • Content validity: expert review • Age validity: older children scoring significantly higher than
Number of children with and without Early Childhood Education (ECE) across countries
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Faculty of Education The University of Hong Kong
Scale Validation • Cronbach’s alpha • Content validity • Comparisons across different domains and groups
– 3 (Age) × 2 (Gender) × 2 (Urbanicity) MANOVA
• Consistency between children’s performance and parents’ assessment
• Item analysis – Appropriateness: discrimination and facility – Differential item function analysis: no systematic bias – Item information curves and test information function
curves for each domain 29
Faculty of Education The University of Hong Kong
Internal consistency of the EAP-ECDS domain scores across countries
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Faculty of Education The University of Hong Kong
Items for parents’ rating of children’s competence
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Domain Skill
Cognitive Development
Ability to learn new things and solve new problems
Socio-Emotional Development
Display social skills, such as showing consideration for others and ability to manage emotions
Motor Development Ability to run and jump
Ability to hold chopsticks, spoons/pencils/pens
Language and Emergent Literacy
Language Skills
Health, Hygiene, and Safety
Practice healthy and hygienic habits (e.g. washing hands independently) Follow safety rules (e.g., not touching hot/dangerous things)
Cultural Knowledge & Participation
Participate in important community events (including festivals)
Approaches to Learning
Ability to concentrate on learning new tasks (exclude watching TV)
Faculty of Education The University of Hong Kong
Correlations between parent ratings and EAP-ECDS domain and total scores
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Faculty of Education The University of Hong Kong
Predicting early childhood development in the East Asia Pacific
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Coefficients and 95% confidence intervals
P-values
Intercept -7.40 (-13.69, -1.11)
0.02
Pre-school attendance
6.52 (4.10, 8.76)
<0.001
Household Asset 0.81 (0.53, 1.09)
<0.001
Mother’s education 0.67 (0.50, 0.87)
<0.001
Sex (Girl as reference)
-1.0 (-1.54, -0.46)
<0.001
Age 12.28 (11.95, 12.62)
<0.001
Faculty of Education The University of Hong Kong
Regression coefficients from multi-level model for global and country specific effects
of preschool attendance on the EAP-ECDS Pre-School Effects p-value Global 6.52
(4.04, 9.01) <0.001
Cambodia (KHM) 9.62 (5.83, 13.54)
<0.001
China (CHN) 7.37 (4.55, 10.09)
<0.001
Mongolia (MNG) 6.64 (3.93, 9.41)
<0.001
Papua New Guinea (PNG) 7.29 (3.59, 10.86)
<0.001
Timor-Leste (TLS) 2.38 (-1.11, 5.99)
0.188
Vanuatu (VUT) 5.92 (2.69, 9.58)
<0.001
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Faculty of Education The University of Hong Kong
Country-specific effects of the impact of attendance in an early childhood programme on early child development and learning
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Faculty of Education The University of Hong Kong
Participation in ECCE
• Urban-rural disparities in participation • Older children and those of better-educated parents
were more likely to be enrolled in an early learning programme than other children.
• In almost all countries, the children who attended ECCE went to kindergarten (In Timor-Leste, about half went to community/drop-in centres).
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Faculty of Education The University of Hong Kong
Home Learning Environments
• 30 to 60 per cent of parents reported engaging in early learning-related activities with children at home.
• Educated parents tended to support early learning at home more than other parents.
• Mothers were more involved than other family members with the exception of Timor-Leste
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Faculty of Education The University of Hong Kong
Children’s Health and Habits
• Almost all children were vaccinated
• Age was best predictor of health facilitation practices (taking children to the clinic)
• Older children and girls tended to have better health
and hygiene habits than other children
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Faculty of Education The University of Hong Kong
Reported Health Problems
• Urban parents and better educated mothers were more likely to report that their children had health problems.
• It is not clear whether
– urban children suffer poorer health
– urban parents are more aware of children health issues, and are more likely to report health concerns, or
– facilities are not available in rural areas
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Faculty of Education The University of Hong Kong
Potential uses
to use evidence to - decrease urban/rural gaps; - decrease gender imbalances; - promote parental involvement; - advocate early childhood education and care; - guide ECCE curriculum development/ review; - …
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Faculty of Education The University of Hong Kong
Conclusions
• First regional tool • Bottom-up approach to development of assessment
tool • Enormous resources put into ensuring context-
sensitivity of items, and developing a psychometrically robust tool
• There are many challenges associated with ensuring cross-cultural equivalence of items