Nirmala Rao

The University of Hong Kong | HKU · Faculty of Education

This paper reviews the Chinese government’s efforts and progress towards ensuring equitable access to quality early childhood education (ECE). It begins with an overview of the Chinese context and analysing the reasons for a policy focus on ECE in recent decades. Thereafter, from a historical perspective, it critically reviews policies pertaining t...

A growing number of studies show an association between attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and physical abuse in childhood. We examined temporal associations of physical abuse risk with methylphenidate treatment in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Using Hong Kong electronic medical records, we conducted a self-controlle...

This paper critically examines parents’ and service providers’ reception of the Pre-primary Education Voucher Scheme (PEVS), which was designed to enhance the quality of early childhood education in Hong Kong. The PEVS was a universal voucher policy that was designed to harness market forces and increase direct governmental control of quality in a...

Background Children with special educational needs (SEN) are more vulnerable during the COVID-19 pandemic with risk of poor mental wellbeing and child maltreatment. Objective To examine the impact of COVID-19 on the mental health of children with SEN and their maltreatment risk. Participants and setting 417 children with SEN studying at special s...

The graded association between family socioeconomic status (SES) and physical fitness is evident, but little is known about the mechanism underlying this association. This study investigated the role of early-life activities as mediators of the longitudinal relationship between early-life SES and health-related physical fitness in 168 adolescents (...

Importance Weight-for-height z score (WHZ) is a standard indicator of children’s nutritional status even though it does not fully reflect body fat. Objective To examine the combined association of WHZ and body fat with early development in the East Asia and Pacific region. Design, Setting, and Participants Children from the East Asia–Pacific Earl...

Background The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is having a profound impact on the health and development of children worldwide. There is limited evidence on the impact of COVID-19 and its related school closures and disease-containment measures on the psychosocial wellbeing of children; little research has been done on the characterist...

Importance Stunting was used as a proxy for underdevelopment in early childhood in previous studies, but the associations between child development and other growth and body composition parameters were rarely studied. Objective To estimate the association between malnutrition and early child development (ECD) at an individual level. Design, Setti...

IMPORTANCE: Stunting was used as a proxy for underdevelopment in early childhood in previous studies, but the associations between child development and other growth and body composition parameters were rarely studied. OBJECTIVE: To estimate the association between malnutrition and early child development (ECD) at an individual level. DESIGN, SETTI...

Hong Kong experienced a period of significant social unrest, marked by protests, from June 2019 to February 2020. Media coverage was pervasive. In July 2020, children aged from 5 to 6 years attending kindergartens in areas both directly and less directly impacted by the protests were asked to draw and talk about what had taken place during the soci...

This paper focuses on the provision of center-based preschool education for children ranging in age from 3 to 6 years in India. It estimates access rates to various services and highlights issues related to equitable access to preschool services and the quality of preschool education. While India has made great strides in improving access to presch...

This study examined associations between participation, intensity (hours per week), duration (months attended), and total dosage (total hours attended) in early childhood education (ECE) and children’s cognitive, language, and socio-emotional development in Cambodia, China, Mongolia, and Vanuatu using data from the validation sample of the East Asi...

The association between five indicators of inequality (geo-ethnicity, height-for-age, socioeconomic status (SES), gender, and preschool participation) and child development was examined among 1498 3- to 5-year olds from the Khmer and Phnong ethnic groups in Cambodia. Children were directly assessed using the East Asia-Pacific Early Child Developmen...

This study investigated the association between observed preschool quality (assessed by the Measure of Early Learning Environments) and children’s holistic development (measured by the East Asia-Pacific Early Child Development Scales) and explored whether area of residence moderated this association. Participants were 681 4- and 5-year-olds from 52...

Child developmental theories and a large body of literature underscore the importance of both home and preschool influences on early childhood outcomes. We leveraged data from UNICEF'S Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys, a nationally representative international household survey that has collected cohort comparable information on children's early d...

Assessment of progress toward UN Sustainable Development Goal 4 requires measurement of the proportion of children aged 24 to 59 months developmentally on track in health, learning, and psychosocial well-being (Indicator 4.2.1). UNICEF’s methodological work culminated with the development of the Early Childhood Development Index 2030 (ECDI2030) to...

Objectives Data linkage of cohort-based data and electronic health records (EHRs) has been practised in many countries, but in Hong Kong there is still a lack of such research. To expand the use of multisource data, we aimed to identify a feasible way of linking two cohorts with EHRs in Hong Kong. Methods Participants in the ‘Children of 1997’ bir...

Background: Although an increasing body of research shows that excessive screen time could impair brain development, whereas non-screen recreational activities can promote the development of adaptive emotion regulation and social skills, there is a lack of comparative research on this topic. Hence, this study examined whether and to what extent th...

The Royal Government of Bhutan has increasingly emphasised Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD). The Ministries of Education and Health provide services to support child development, including health care, Care for Child Development (C4CD) and centre-based ECCD programmes. C4CD is an evidence-based parenting programme for children younger th...

UN Sustainable Development Goal 4.2 specifies that countries need to ensure that all girls and boys have access to quality early childhood development, care and pre-primary education so that they are ready for primary school education. This paper considers where Bangladesh, China, India and Myanmar stand in terms SDG Target Indicator 4.2.2. Nationa...

Objectives: This study aimed to identify key factors affecting Healthcare workers (HCWs) perceived stress and risk of contracting COVID-19 among themselves and their family members during the pandemic. Methods: A cross-sectional online questionnaire study was conducted between 19 March and April 5, 2020 in Hong Kong. HCWs from public hospitals and...

A corollary to the exponential growth of digital technology is the increase in research interest in the construct of digital citizenship (DC) in diverse disciplinary areas. Although the term DC is used widely in research, scholars do not commit to a common definition. This integrative review investigates the conceptualizations and measurements of D...

Previous research findings indicate that young children from East Asia outperform their counterparts from Europe and North America on executive function (EF) tasks. However, very few cross-national studies have focused on EF development during middle childhood. The current study assessed the EF performance of 170 children in grades 2 and 4 from Hon...

In China, enhancing preschool attendance has been an education policy priority since 2010. This study describes trends in preschool attendance and examines the associations among family socioeconomic status, geographic region of residence, and preschool attendance, from 2010 to 2016. This was done by examining parent-reported data on 9271 three- to...

Although differences in academic motivation may exist across cultures, research on academic motivational goals has been Western-focused and relied on Western originated questionnaire. There is a dearth of studies adopting bottom-up, emic, and in-depth approaches to explore East Asian students’ academic motivation. This study describes Chinese stude...

This study examined associations among preschool attendance, home learning activities, stunting status, and early child development using data from the validation study of the East Asia–Pacific Early Child Development Scales (EAP-ECDS). Participants were children aged 3 to 5 years from Cambodia (n = 1178; 30% stunted), Mongolia (n = 1226; 11% stunt...

Objective To disentangle the pathways between parent technology use, parent-child interactions, child screen time, and child psychosocial difficulties among disadvantaged families in Hong Kong. Study design Parents of 1,254 3-years-olds from the [email protected] project reported on the number of hours their children used electronic devices every...

Research Findings: This study examined the relation between early childhood education (ECE) participation and early child development in Myanmar. It considered whether this relation varied by ethnic group, language(s) spoken at home, and language(s) of ECE instruction. Participants were 1,494 children (759 girls) from Myanmar, aged between 36 and 7...

Early childhood education (ECE) is not given as much attention as primary and secondary education in rural areas in China, and rural preschool teachers lack opportunities to receive high quality and appropriate pre-service and in-service professional training. This study focused on professional development (PD) opportunities available for preschool...

A systematic review was conducted to gain a more nuanced understanding of similarities and distinctions across countries in the development of executive functions (EF). The review includes 26 studies, with child and adolescent participants, that were published between 2006 and 2018. Both similarities and differences within developmental patterns of...

A systematic review was conducted to gain a more nuanced understanding of similarities and distinctions across countries in the development of executive functions (EF). The review includes 26 studies, with child and adolescent participants, that were published between 2006 and 2018. Both similarities and differences within developmental patterns of...

Research Findings: This study evaluated the impact of Chinese literacy interventions on Chinese language learning of South Asian children and their mothers in Hong Kong. A total of 44 children and eight of their mothers participated in Chinese literacy interventions that consisted of two approaches – Copying and Morphological Awareness Training (CM...

This study reports on the goal structures of one rural and one urban Grade 11 class in China, based on classroom observations and teacher and student interviews. Classroom observations, conducted over a 6‐month period, focused on physical settings and classroom activities. In each class, seven students and the homeroom teacher were interviewed to d...

The East Asia-Pacific Early Child Development Scales represent the first effort to create a developmental assessment tool on the basis of the diverse cultures and values of a range of countries within a world region. The Scales were administered to a representative sample of 7757 children (3869 girls), ranging in age from 36 to 71 months, from Camb...

Background: This study aims to study prospectively specific sleep patterns and risk of ADHD after adjusting for potential confounders such as obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) and methylphenidate use. Methods: A population-representative sample of 514 Chinese preschool children was recruited when in kindergarten (K3). Parents reported on their soci...

This study compares school readiness and family experiences of children of naturalized refugees with the learning and experiences of a rural majority population group and urban majority population group in Tanzania. A total of 150 pre-primary children (50 in each group) were selected and completed a modified version of the School Readiness Composit...

Research Findings: This study examined the contributions of motor skills and executive function (EF) to early achievement. Participants were 7,797 children (3,889 girls) between 36 and 72 months of age from 6 countries in East Asia and the Pacific. Fine and gross motor skills, EF, language and literacy achievement, and mathematics achievement were...

The role of mastery and performance goals in self-regulated learning (SRL) has received much attention. However, in collectivist and Confucian-heritage contexts, social-academic goals may also play an important, yet unexamined role in SRL. This study examined the association between social-academic goals and SRL. We tested a hierarchical model whic...

Award-winning Green Preschools in Bali, Berkeley and Hong Kong were selected to explore the characteristics of Green Schools using measures developed by educators (Environmental Rating Scale for Sustainable Development in Early Childhood (ERS-SDEC)) and architects (simplified Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) development). Classr...

Research Findings: This study investigated the relationship between family socioeconomic status (SES) and children’s early attainment, and the roles of preschool attendance and executive function (EF) in this association. Participants were 3,331 children (1,584 girls) ranging in age from 36 to 71 months from Cambodia, Mongolia, and Vanuatu. Childre...

This study examined whether there were family SES-related gaps in early development and considered whether parental engagement in early learning activities at home served as a protective factor in low- and middle-income countries in East Asia and the Pacific using the validation data of the East Asia–Pacific Early Child Development Scales (EAP-ECDS...

This study compares the literacy and numeracy attainments of naturalized refugees and the majority rural and urban local children in Tanzania. Samples of 150 pupils were administered Early Grades Reading/Mathematics Assessment. Further, 45 parents and three principals were individually interviewed. Results indicate that naturalized refugees outperf...

This study examined socioeconomic gradients in different domains of early child development using data from the validation sample of the East Asia-Pacific Early Child Development Scales. The Scales were administered to 7797 3- to 5- year-olds (3889 girls) from Cambodia, China, Mongolia, Papua New Guinea, Timor-Leste, and Vanuatu and children’s pare...

The benefits of parental involvement in children’s education have been well established but increasing evidence suggests that overparenting may have adverse effects on children. The question of whether excessive parental involvement hinders children’s academic and psychosocial development warrants further investigations. This study examined the ass...

The term early childhood development (ECD) refers to a period of development, the process of early human development, and to programs that promote development during the early years of life. In this entry, the term is used to refer to a period of development and not to processes and programs. Developmental psychologists often divide the early years...

Background: Proper parent-child interaction is crucial for child development, but an assessment tool in Chinese is currently lacking. This study aimed to develop and validate a parent-reported parent-child interaction scale for Chinese preschool children. Methods: The Chinese parent-child interaction scale (CPCIS) was designed by an expert panel...

Background: India had around 158 million children under the age of 6 and about 26 million births in 2015. In the same year, India's Integrated Child Development Services Scheme served about 82 million children under 6 years and over 19 million pregnant women and lactating mothers. These 102 million beneficiaries received services in about 1.3 mill...

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...

Background: Gender differences in child development have been extensively studied in high-income countries, but few data are available from low-income and middle-income countries. Our objective was to assess gender disparities in child development that might arise from differential investment in child health, nutrition, and education in six countr...

Objective 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). Design This is a cross-sectional study with bedroom ED placement and parental restriction reported by parents. Multip...

In this chapter, early childhood education (ECE) in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) or Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macao, Singapore, and Taiwan are compared in terms of (i) separation/integration of childcare services and kindergarten education, (ii) degree of public vs. private funding for ECE, (iii) unique cultural history and influences on E...

Socialization, which begins shortly after birth, is the process of learning interpersonal and interactional skills that conform to the values of one’s society. Socialization goals vary across cultures, and this chapter focuses on Chinese patterns of socialization during the early years. It focuses on factors that influence various parenting practic...

Early childhood education (ECE) in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region entered an exciting and challenging phase after the handover of sovereignty from Britain to China in July 1997. The Government began to play a more proactive role in promoting the development of high-quality preschool education in the private sector by providing financia...

Objective: A systematic review and meta-analysis were conducted to compare the effectiveness of different types of early childhood interventions in enhancing cognitive development of children in developing countries, and to identify factors related to intervention efficacy. Method: The meta-analysis included 106 interventions from 62 studies in 30...

This book systematically reviews early childhood education (ECE) in Chinese societies in the context of recent empirical and theoretical work. It is the first English-language research-based review of ECE and the factors which affect it in the following Chinese societies: the People’s Republic of China (PRC) or Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macao, Sin...

This book provides an up-to-date account of relevant early childhood policy and practice in five Chinese societies: the People’s Republic of China or Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macao, Singapore, and Taiwan. It analyses how traditional Chinese values, Eastern and Western curricular approaches, and socio-political, economic, cultural and demographic...

Research Findings: This study investigated the relationships between effortful control and early literacy and mathematics achievement. A total of 181 children (85 girls and 96 boys) from rural China were assessed when they were in Grades 1 and 2. Path analyses controlling for maternal education indicated that effortful control at the beginning of G...

The UN Sustainable Development Goals provide a historic opportunity to implement interventions, at scale, to promote early childhood development. Although the evidence base for the importance of early childhood development has grown, the research is distributed across sectors, populations, and settings, with diversity noted in both scope and focus....

Stimulating caregiving practices facilitate early child development and learning. This study examined child-, family-, and country-level predictors of maternal and paternal cognitive and socio-emotional caregiving in 28 low- and middle-income countries, using data from the UNICEF 2005 Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey 3. The sample included 134,290...

In recent years, the Government of the Hong Kong SAR has allocated considerably more attention and resources to pre-primary education. This chapter considers how these changes at the policy and pedagogy levels are shaping the learning experiences of young children in Hong Kong. It will focus on the impact of the following four broad policy changes...

Almost all 3- to 6-year-olds attend preschool programmes in Hong Kong; however, early childhood education (ECE) had been relatively neglected by the Hong Kong government until 2000 when the reform of school education system was initiated. Since then, notions of ‘child-centredness’ and holistic development have been promulgated as the core values of...

This paper analyses child care and education policy in Cambodia, a country where there is currently a strong commitment to Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE). This is done by (i) providing an overview of national statistics related to the health and development of young Cambodian children and information about their access to ECCE programs;...

This paper describes a social skills programme implemented to enhance the social competence of Primary-one students in order to ensure a smooth adjustment after transition from kindergarten to a formal school learning environment. The participants were 122 students (64 boys and 58 girls; mean age 6.17 years, SD = 0.29 years) newly enrolled in a Hon...

This exploratory study involved a structured group-games intervention to develop first-grade students’ social competence. The effects were evaluated by assessing possible outcomes for the children's social status. A sample of 119 first-grade, mixed-ability students from a Hong Kong primary school participated in the sessions (63 boys, 56 girls: mea...

This review assembles extant evidence that will help determine how, why and under what conditions Early Childhood Development (ECD) interventions in developing-country contexts are effective in promoting cognitive development. Typical cognitive development can be defined broadly as expected gains in language, thinking and understanding. Atypical de...

This chapter considers how the attitudes and skills related to learning to learn are facilitated among Chinese learners in the home and preschool during the early years. First, we review research on early cognitive socialization focusing on studies that have considered how children’s learning to learn skills, including behavioural regulation and pr...

This chapter summarizes prototypic forms of family functioning in East and Southeast Asian countries, and recent historical trends that have prompted a variety of family adaptations over the past quarter century. We focus on common cultural values pertaining to the family, parenting practices shaped by Confucian and Tao doctrines, cultural mores co...

This chapter critically reviews the role and use of assessment in the learning and teaching process. Assessment is pivotal in learning, and the use of assessment in early childhood and school education is considered. It is argued that striking a balance between the assessment of, and for, learning is crucial for the effective education of all learn...

The Pre-primary Education Voucher Scheme (PEVS) of Hong Kong has generated considerable controversy since its first announcement due to its unconventional nature. Though previous research showed that stakeholders generally expected the policy to promote the "3As" of early childhood education (ECE) - affordability, accessibility, and accountability,...

Vocabulary instruction during English language learning was observed for one week in six classrooms (three K2 classes for four-year olds and three K3 classes for five-year olds) from three kindergartens in two districts of Hong Kong. From 23 sessions of observations and 535 minutes of data, field notes were coded to identify instances of vocabulary...

The Early Development Instrument (EDI) is a comprehensive instrument used to assess school readiness in preschool children. This study was carried out to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Chinese version of the EDI (CEDI) in Hong Kong. One hundred and sixty-seven children were purposefully sampled from kindergartens in two districts with...

This paper reports on the development and validation of the Hong Kong Early Child Development Scale (HKECDS), a holistic measure of child development designed specifically for preschool children in Hong Kong. Scale development was an iterative process and the first version of the scale contained 190 items whereas the final version includes only 95....

This book compares primary education in urban and rural China and India. It focuses on how the sociocultural context including educational policy, educators and parents’ beliefs, and the conditions under which teaching and learning occur shape classroom pedagogy and determine children’s attainment.

Millions of the world's young children do not develop to their full potential due to factors such as poverty, HIV/AIDS, and armed conflict. This chapter examines child, family, community, and environmental factors affecting the status of the world's children, and, when data are available, changes in children's status in recent years. Contextual cha...

This study examined the learning and teaching approaches used in three kindergartens in Hong Kong. The kindergartens used the same curriculum package and were assessed as being of "good", "acceptable" and "unsatisfactory" quality, respectively, by the regulatory body. The participants were five kindergarten teachers and their students, and five spe...

This study developed and validated an instrument, the Chinese Early Parental Involvement Scale (CEPIS), that can be widely used in both local and international contexts to assess Chinese parental involvement in early childhood education. The study was carried out in two stages: (1) focus group interviews were conducted with 41 teachers and 35 paren...

The Pre-primary Education Voucher Scheme (PEVS) of Hong Kong has generated considerable controversy since its first announcement due to its unconventional nature. Though previous research showed that stakeholders generally expected the policy to promote the “3As” of early childhood education (ECE) — affordability, accessibility, and accountability,...

This study compared Chinese mothers’ and teachers’ scaffolding of preschool children in different problem solving tasks. Participants were 57 children (including 29 girls) from seven kindergartens in Beijing, their mothers and teachers. Mothers varied in educational levels while all teachers were professionally qualified. Children solved four probl...

The Pre - primary Education Voucher Scheme (PEVS) of Hong Kong has generatedconsiderable controversy since its first announcement due to its unconventional nature.Though previous research showed that stakeholders generally expected the policy topromote the "3As" of early childhood education (ECE) - affordability, accessibility, andaccountability, a...