Summary This paper is the third in the Child Development Series. The first paper showed that more than 200 million children under 5 years of age in developing countries do not reach their ...developmental potential. The second paper identified four well-documented risks: stunting, iodine deficiency, iron deficiency anaemia, and inadequate cognitive stimulation, plus four potential risks based on epidemiological evidence: maternal depression, violence exposure, environmental contamination, and malaria. This paper assesses strategies to promote child development and to prevent or ameliorate the loss of developmental potential. The most effective early child development programmes provide direct learning experiences to children and families, are targeted toward younger and disadvantaged children, are of longer duration, high quality, and high intensity, and are integrated with family support, health, nutrition, or educational systems and services. Despite convincing evidence, programme coverage is low. To achieve the Millennium Development Goals of reducing poverty and ensuring primary school completion for both girls and boys, governments and civil society should consider expanding high quality, cost-effective early child development programmes.
With the importance of early childhood development more recognized by the international society, low-cost and cross-culturally comparable measures of early childhood development is in great demand, ...both in China and worldwide. In this study, we aim to test the psychometrics of the Chinese version of The Early Human Capability Index (eHCI), which is designed as a measurement for school readiness in large population.
We evaluated the internal consistency, test-retest reliability, inter-rater reliability, factor structure, criterion-related validity, and discriminant validity of the eHCI in 20,324 preschool children in Shanghai. We also compared eHCI scores with test result of ASQ in 815 children in Yexian and EAP-ECDS in 6947 children in Daming.
The ICC between parents and teachers were 0.83 and 0.63 for Literacy Numeracy and Overall Development. The confirmatory factor analyses showed good model fit (χ2 = 509,323, p < 0.001; CFI = 0.901; RMSEA = 0.038). The correlations between the scores of eHCI and other ECD metrics ranged between r = - 0.42 and r = 0.53. The scale discriminated between children's developmental level based on sex, parental education, family income, family assets, and nutrition status.
Results from Chinese population suggested that eHCI is valid and reliable for measuring early childhood development in children aged 3-6 years. The eHCI can be applied to map the global distribution of early childhood development for allocating scarce resources to help those in greatest demand. Longitudinal studies are warranted to test its predictive validity for later outcomes.
Early child development in china Wu, Kin Bing; Young, Mary Eming; Cai, Jianhua
2012., 2012, 07-06-2012, 2012-07-06, 2014-05-14
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In the past 30 years, China has reached the target of lifting 500 million people out of poverty. The rate of increase in human development indicators has become the second fastest in the world, ...allowing China to enter the ranks of middle-income countries. As the most populous country, accounting for one- fifth of the world's population, its transformation has been unprecedented in human history. Scientific evidence and international experience in the past 10 years have found that early child development (ECD) is key to human development, as it lays the foundation for the rest of life. Early child development includes physical, psychological, emotional, language, behavioral, and social development. Experience in the early years of life will determine healthy development and happiness in the rest of life. Research has found that investment in ECD is the most cost effective strategy to improve human development. In China's demographic transition, the population of children and youth is declining in absolute numbers, and the investment of raising them can increase on a per capita basis. This study has been in the making since 2009. It was prepared during a time when China was charting its course of development under the 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015). The study began with an agreement between the World Bank and China's National Population and Family Planning Commission (NPFPC) for a collaborative study on ECD. Concurrently, China's Ministry of Education invited the World Bank to conduct an overall review of the education sector, in order to provide it with inputs and suggestions as it prepared China's national plan for medium- and long-term education reform and development (2010-2020). In reviewing achievements and challenges in the education sector, the Bank found that there was much room for expanding and improving preprimary education for children ages 3-6. The Ministry of Education appreciated the Bank's identification of this need and set ambitious goals for preprimary education in the national education plan.
Interventions to enhance development of children ages 0-6 have profound benefits for children, families, and societies. The benefits are well documented, recognized internationally, and supportive of ...policies and programs targeting early child development (ECD). Intervening in the early years is a critical first step toward alleviating poverty, reducing inequality, and ensuring a productive workforce for the global economy. The challenges presented by the almost 250 million at-risk children in low- and middle-income countries and the main obstacles to investing in ECD demand a paradigm shift in social policy and an action agenda integrated with the world's sustainable development goals for 2030. There are four main tasks and three essential building blocks for ECD action.
Interventions to enhance development of children ages 0‒6 have profound benefits for children, families, and societies. The benefits are well documented, recognized internationally, and supportive of ...policies and programs targeting early child development (ECD). Intervening in the early years is a critical first step toward alleviating poverty, reducing inequality, and ensuring a productive workforce for the global economy. The challenges presented by the almost 250 million at‐risk children in low‐ and middle‐income countries and the main obstacles to investing in ECD demand a paradigm shift in social policy and an action agenda integrated with the world's sustainable development goals for 2030. There are four main tasks and three essential building blocks for ECD action.
Nutritional supplements may be important on cognition but the evidence is heterogeneous. This meta-analysis aimed (1) to determine whether nutritional supplements provided to pregnant women or young ...children could improve cognitive development of children in developing countries, and (2) to explore how supplementation characteristics could improve children's cognitive outcomes. This meta-analysis examined nutritional supplementation studies in 9 electronic databases and 13 specialist websites. Experimental studies were included if they were published from 1992 to 2016, were conducted in developing countries, had nutritional supplementation for pregnant women or children aged ≤8, and reported effect sizes on cognitive outcomes. Interventions with confounded components, such as stimulation and parenting, were excluded. 67 interventions (48 studies) for 29814 children from 20 developing countries were evaluated. Childhood nutritional supplementation could improve children's cognitive development (d 0.08, 95% CI 0.03-0.13) and those with ≥5 nutrients was particularly beneficial (0.15, 0.08-0.22). Antenatal supplementation did not improve cognitive development (0.02, -0.01 to 0.06) except for those implemented in the first trimester (0.15, 0.03-0.28). In conclusion, childhood nutritional supplementation was beneficial to cognitive development but could be optimised by providing multiple nutrients; antenatal supplementation should target pregnancy women in the first trimester for better cognitive benefits.
To investigate whether school readiness could be affected by placing electronic devices (EDs) in children's bedroom and whether the relationship was moderated by parental restriction and family ...socioeconomic status (SES).
This is a cross-sectional study with bedroom ED placement and parental restriction reported by parents. Multiple linear regressions were used to test the relationship between school readiness and ED placement. Multiple regression with interaction terms were used to test whether the effect was consistent with and without parental restriction.
Kindergartens randomly selected from two districts of different socioeconomic backgrounds in Hong Kong, China.
556 young children attending the third year of kindergarten.
Children's school readiness was rated by teachers using the Chinese Early Development Instrument.
556 preschoolers (mean age 5.46; 51.8% girls) from 20 kindergartens participated in this study. About 30% of parents placed at least one ED in their children's bedroom. After controlling for sex and SES, the placement of television in the bedroom was associated with lower overall school readiness (β -1.11, 95% CI -1.80 to -0.42) and the placement of game console was associated with lower social competence (β-0.94, 95% CI -1.74 to -0.15). Such harmful effect was more prominent among lower SES families and could be partially alleviated with parental restriction.
ED placement in children's bedroom was associated with lower school readiness, particularly among lower SES families. Parental restriction might help to alleviate the harm.
This paper is the third in the Child Development Series. The first paper showed that more than 200 million children under 5 years of age in developing countries do not reach their developmental ...potential. The second paper identified four well-documented risks: stunting, iodine deficiency, iron deficiency anaemia, and inadequate cognitive stimulation, plus four potential risks based on epidemiological evidence: maternal depression, violence exposure, environmental contamination, and malaria. This paper assesses strategies to promote child development and to prevent or ameliorate the loss of developmental potential. The most effective early child development programmes provide direct learning experiences to children and families, are targeted toward younger and disadvanlaged children, are of longer duration, high quality, and high intensity, and are integrated with family support, health, nutrition, or educational systems and services. Despite convincing evidence, programme coverage is low. To achieve the Millennium Development Goals of reducing poverty and ensuring primary school completion for both girls and boys, governments and civil society should consider expanding high quality, cost-effective early child development programmes. PUBLICATION ABSTRACT
The convergence of knowledge from neuroscience, social science and economics on the importance of early life or experiences on brain development has tremendous implication on the future of societies. ...Regardless of their level of development or income, countries must provide ECD programs for all the children and involve parents and caregivers in these efforts. Each country along the continuum of development has a responsibility to (i) identify factors within its society and culture that inhibit healthy child development and (ii) create building blocks for a national ECD system. Moreover, it is important to recognize that the new knowledge has implications for all sectors, including tertiary education.
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