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Faculty of EducationThe University of Hong Kong
Early Childhood Development in the East Asia Pacific:Development & Findings from the East Asia Pacific
– Early Child Development Scales (EAP-ECDS)
Sun Jin Assistant Professor, Faculty of Education
Hong Kong Institute of Education
Yvonne BecherHead of Psychological Services, The Child Development Centre, Hong Kong
Presentation at theARNEC –Conference 2014,
ManilaDecember 4, 2014
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Faculty of EducationThe University of Hong Kong
EAP-ECDS
A collaborative effort by -UNICEF
-ARNEC
-Open Society Foundation
-Faculty of Education, University of Hong Kong
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Faculty of EducationThe University of Hong Kong
Faculty of EducationThe University of Hong Kong
Overview1. Rationale for developing the East Asia Pacific
– Early Child Development Scales (EAP-ECDS)2. Process of Development– Phases 1, 2 and 3
3. Overall Findings4. Lessons Learned5. Potential Uses6. Conclusions
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Faculty of EducationThe University of Hong Kong
Rationale for Developing the EAP-ECDS1. Need to invest in young children – UNICEF’S Early Learning
and Development Standards (ELDS)
• Standards are statements of expectation for “what children should know and be able to do”
• Five Broad Domains of School Readiness have been widely accepted:
• Physical Health, Well-Being, and Motor Development• Social & Emotional Development• Approaches Toward Learning• Language, Literacy & Communication• Cognition and General Knowledge 5
Faculty of EducationThe University of Hong Kong
Rationale for Developing the EAP-ECDS
2. Implementation of Standards
3. 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 EducationThe 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 EducationThe 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 EducationThe University of Hong Kong
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Faculty of EducationThe University of Hong Kong
Established anIndicator Database
1738 indicators for children aged 3, 4, and 5 from seven countries’ ELDS
Developed categories + sub-categories
7 categories
Determined # of indicatorsin each category
Based on the proportion of the total # of indicators in each category
Development of the Items
Converted indicatorsto items
Form a 100-item measure
Selected indicatorsin each category
To construct a 100-item regionally-sensitive measure
Focus on rationale and process
Faculty of EducationThe University of Hong Kong
Converting indicators to items
Code Sub-category Indicator selected Countries Ages
LA16Draws/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 EducationThe 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 EducationThe University of Hong Kong
Converting indicators to itemsCode Sub-category Indicators
Selected Countries Age
SS01Shows or uses respectful behavior
Tells how to pay respect to elders (Ex. clapping hands, bowing, etc.).
Uses polite words with adults (by answering thank you, hello, good bye etc.).
Cambodia, Laos,
Mongolia,Philippines,
Thailand,Vanuatu,Vietnam
3;4;5
Faculty of EducationThe University of Hong Kong
Materials Two pictures of:1. A sitting child and a standing adult in bus (can be
changed by country). 2. An adult giving a nicely wrapped gift to a child
(only two persons in picture)Procedure Assessor shows one picture at a time and asks child
what the child in the picture should say. Instruction 1. (for Picture 1) Look at this picture. Look at this
child. Here is a grandmother. What would you say or do if you were the child?
2. (for Picture 2) In this picture, the adult is giving a very nice gift to this child. What would you say to the adult if you were this child?
Scoring Criteria and Comments
Correctly answered Question 1. Correctly answered Question 2.
□ 0 □ 1 □ 0 □ 1
Faculty of EducationThe University of Hong Kong
• Revised feedback on draft categories, subcategories, indicators and items
• HKU team developed items, scoring criteria and instructional manual. How we did this? Iterative process
• Panel of experts reviewed drafts materials and appropriateness of methods and suggested changes
Faculty of EducationThe University of Hong Kong
Phase II: Pilot studies
1. To field-test items in three countries2. To modify the Scales based on the results and
feedback3. To develop a revised version of the Scales which can
be used in many countries in Phase III
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Faculty of EducationThe University of Hong Kong
Pilot studyMongolia
FijiChina
Send draft to countries
Field trialsTranslation & checking
Modification
Field Consultancy Support
Faculty of EducationThe 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
younger children
– Appropriateness • Cross-cultural differences• Item discrimination• Item facility
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Faculty of EducationThe University of Hong Kong
Item Difficulty & Discrimination: Cognitive Development
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Top 5 Easiest Items
CD12_2 Sat on the chair
CD22_4 Correctly put the toy under the chair
CD12_1 Brought the block (or other small item) to the assessor
CD3_1 Correctly put one block inside the box
CD22_3 Correctly put the toy on the chair
Top 5 Hardest Items
CD22_2 Correctly put the toy on the left side of the chair
CD5_2 Correctly picked 7 blocks on the paper
CD17_3 Correctly arranged all the pictures in the right order
CD5_3 Correctly picked 15 blocks on the paper
CD5_4 Correctly picked 29 blocks on the paper
Faculty of EducationThe University of Hong Kong
The Revised Scale after Phase II
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2. Cognitive Development 21 items21 items
4. Language and Emergent Literacy 16 items 16 items
6. Health, Hygiene and Safety 9 items 9 items
7. Socio-Emotional Development 15 items15 items
Total 85 items85 items
5. Motor Development 7 items7 items
7 items7 items 1. Approaches to Learning
10 items 10 items3. Cultural Knowledge and Participation
Faculty of EducationThe University of Hong Kong
Objective of Phase III
Validate the EAP-ECDS in 6 countries in the region
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Faculty of EducationThe University of Hong Kong
Sampling• From June to December 2013, EAP-ECDS assessments were
carried out in six countries• Samples included both boys and girls residing in urban and
rural settings, attending preschool programmes and those who did not; the number of children assessed in each country ranged from 900 to 1803
• Sampling in all countries were stratified by child’s Age, Gender and Urbanicity
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Faculty of EducationThe University of Hong Kong
Country adaptations• Translated versions of the EAP-ECDS Instruction Manual,
Scoring Form and Parent Questionnaire
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Country Translated versions in the country’s native language(s)
Cambodia Khmer
China Chinese
Mongolia Mongolian
Papua New Guinea Tok Pisin
Timor-Leste Tetum
Vanuatu Bislama
Faculty of EducationThe University of Hong Kong
Country adaptations: Item 15Arrange picture according to temporal order
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CambodiaCambodia
PNGPNG
ChinaChina
Faculty of EducationThe University of Hong Kong
Country adaptations: Item 17Predicts season or weather
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CambodiaCambodia
VanuatuVanuatu
PNGPNG
Faculty of EducationThe University of Hong Kong
Country adaptations: Item 52Letters, characters / symbols
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Cambodia
China 大,小,人,山,水,日,月,木,树,手,牛,羊。
Mongolia А, Н, О, М, Б, У, С, Э, Т, И, Р, Л;
Faculty of EducationThe University of Hong Kong
Country adaptations: Item 54Wordless picture book
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CambodiaCambodia
ChinaChina
MongoliaMongolia
Timor-LesteTimor-Leste
Faculty of EducationThe University of Hong Kong
Country adaptations: Item 61Child in bathroom with a sink
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Timor-LesteTimor-Leste
MongoliaMongolia
CambodiaCambodia
ChinaChina PNGPNG
VanuatuVanuatu
Faculty of EducationThe University of Hong Kong
Country adaptations: Item 63Signs
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CambodiaCambodia
ChinaChina
VanuatuVanuatu
Faculty of EducationThe University of Hong Kong
Country adaptations: Item 72Picture of a teddy bear sitting outside the front door of a local-type store
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VanuatuVanuatu
PNGPNGChinaChina
Faculty of EducationThe University of Hong Kong
Country adaptations: Item 77A picture with national flags
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CambodiaCambodia
MongoliaMongolia
ChinaChina
PNGPNG
Timor-LesteTimor-Leste
VanuatuVanuatu
Faculty of EducationThe University of Hong Kong
Country adaptations: Item 78An adult throwing large amounts of garbage into a clean river
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ChinaChina
VanuatuVanuatu
PNGPNG
Faculty of EducationThe University of Hong Kong
Parent Questionnaire
• Demographic• Information about the family – Family asset– Family members– Family learning support
• The child’s early learning and development• The child’s health and habit
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Faculty of EducationThe University of Hong Kong
Overall Findings
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Faculty of EducationThe University of Hong Kong
Important points• These findings are based on six countries in our
region that vary widely in human development indicators, size, early childhood policy, challenges and opportunities.
• Countries varied in sampling procedures, and samples varied in terms of preschool attendance.
• We did not make cross-country comparisons like in the PISA, PIRLS, TIMMS – we think it is inappropriate to do so.
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Faculty of EducationThe University of Hong Kong
Demographic and Human Development Indicators in the six countries
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Faculty of EducationThe University of Hong Kong
Sample for EAP-ECDS validation by country, age and gender
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Country
Age Rural Urban
Total Girls Boys Girls Boys
China
3Y 88 85 110 104 387 4Y 89 89 105 107 390 5Y 88 92 106 106 392
Cambodia 3Y 60 59 214 188 521 4Y 51 58 214 197 520 5Y 67 47 199 238 551
Mongolia 3Y 103 102 104 105 414 4Y 104 105 104 105 418 5Y 104 104 105 102 415
Papua New Guinea
3Y 173 170 99 95 537 4Y 181 188 114 79 562 5Y 226 213 98 108 645
Timor-Leste
3Y 96 97 98 108 399 4Y 100 100 101 94 395 5Y 101 96 99 98 394
Vanuatu 3Y 69 93 6 8 176 4Y 95 102 21 12 230 5Y 127 127 17 17 288
Total
1922 1927 1914 1871 7634
Faculty of EducationThe University of Hong Kong
Number of children with and without Early Childhood Education (ECE) across countries
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Faculty of EducationThe 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 39
Faculty of EducationThe University of Hong Kong
Internal consistency of the EAP-ECDS domain scores across countries
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Faculty of EducationThe 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 EducationThe University of Hong Kong
Correlations between parent ratings and EAP-ECDS domain and total scores
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Faculty of EducationThe 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 EducationThe University of Hong Kong
Age, gender, urban-rural differences in total EAP-ECDS score across countries
• 5Y > 4Y > 3Y• Gender imbalance• Urban-rural imbalance
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Faculty of EducationThe 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 EducationThe 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 EducationThe 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 EducationThe 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 EducationThe 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 EducationThe 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 areas53
Faculty of EducationThe 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 EducationThe University of Hong Kong
Lessons learned
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• need a low-resource tool (hard to access areas!)• never skip language selection & (back-)
translation process (meanings get lost)• be culturally appropriate (item flexibility vs.
standardisation)• consider direct vs. indirect assessment• train tool users/ administrators (training? how?)
Faculty of EducationThe 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
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Faculty of EducationThe University of Hong Kong
Thank you for your attention!