early childhood development in the east asia pacific ... the university of ... and 5 from seven...

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 JinAssistant 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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EAP-ECDS

A collaborative effort by

-UNICEF

-ARNEC

-Open Society Foundation

-Faculty of Education, University of Hong Kong

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Overview

1. Rationale for developing the East Asia Pacific – Early Child Development Scales (EAP-ECDS)

2. Process of Development

– Phases 1, 2 and 3

3. Overall Findings

4. Lessons Learned

5. Potential Uses

6. Conclusions

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Rationale for Developing the EAP-ECDS

1. 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



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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• 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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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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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


Converting indicators to items

Code Sub-categoryIndicator 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


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


Converting indicators to items

Code Sub-categoryIndicatorsSelected

Countries Age

SS01Shows or uses respectful behavior

Tells how to pay respect to elders (Ex. clapping hands, bowing, etc.).

Uses polite wordswith adults (byanswering thankyou, hello, goodbye etc.).

Cambodia, Laos,

Mongolia,Philippines,

Thailand,Vanuatu,Vietnam

3;4;5


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


• 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


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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Pilot studyMongolia

FijiChina

Send draft to countries

Field trialsTranslation & checking

Modification

Field Consultancy Support


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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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




The Revised Scale after Phase II

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2. Cognitive Development 21 items

4. Language and Emergent Literacy 16 items

6. Health, Hygiene and Safety 9 items

7. Socio-Emotional Development 15 items

Total 85 items

5. Motor Development 7 items

7 items1. Approaches to Learning

10 items3. Cultural Knowledge and Participation


Objective of Phase III

Validate the EAP-ECDS in 6 countries in the region

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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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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


Country adaptations: Item 15Arrange picture according to temporal order

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Cambodia

PNG

China


Country adaptations: Item 17Predicts season or weather

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Cambodia

Vanuatu

PNG


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;


Country adaptations: Item 54Wordless picture book

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Cambodia

China

Mongolia

Timor-Leste


Country adaptations: Item 61Child in bathroom with a sink

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Timor-Leste

Mongolia

Cambodia

China PNG

Vanuatu


Country adaptations: Item 63Signs

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Cambodia

China

Vanuatu


Country adaptations: Item 72Picture of a teddy bear sitting outside the front door of a local-type store

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Vanuatu

PNGChina


Country adaptations: Item 77A picture with national flags

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Cambodia

Mongolia

China

PNG

Timor-Leste

Vanuatu


Country adaptations: Item 78An adult throwing large amounts of garbage into a clean river

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China

Vanuatu

PNG


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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Overall Findings

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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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Demographic and Human Development Indicatorsin the six countries

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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


Number of children with and without Early Childhood Education (ECE) across countries

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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


Internal consistency of the EAP-ECDS domain scores across countries

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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)


Correlations between parent ratings and EAP-ECDS domain and total scores

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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


Age, gender, urban-rural differences in total EAP-ECDS score across countries

• 5Y > 4Y > 3Y

• Gender imbalance

• Urban-rural imbalance

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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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Country-specific effects of the impact of attendance in an early childhood programme on early child development and learning

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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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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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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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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


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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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?)


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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Thank you for your attention!

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