Tag Archives: ECDS
The Hong Kong early child development scale: A validation study
Rao, N., Sun, J., Ng, S.N.N., Ma, K., Becher, Y., Lee, D., Lau, C., Zhang, L., Chow, C.B., & Ip, P. (2013). The Hong Kong early child development scale: A validation study. Child Indicators Research, 6, 115-135.
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. Children ranging in age from three to six years were administered trial versions of the HKECDS in Studies 1 (n=60) and 2 (n=240). Item analyses indicated that it is a developmental scale and that it has an appropriate level of difficulty for preschool children. It also discriminates between three- to six-year olds from
different social backgrounds in Hong Kong. The final version of the HKECDS includes items from the following eight subscales: Personal, Social and Self-Care
(7 items), Language Development (13 items), Pre-academic Learning (27 items), Cognitive Development (10 items), Gross Motor (12 items), Fine Motor (9 items),
Physical Fitness, Health and Safety (7 items), and Self and Society (10 items). The HKECDS is the first early child development scale which considers both the holistic development of preschool children and incorporates current expectations of early child development in Hong Kong. In this era of evidence-based decision making, it can be used to evaluate both the efficacy of targeted interventions and broader child-related public policies on early child development in Hong Kong.
The Development and Validation of the East Asia-Pacific Early Child Development Scales (EAP-ECDS): A Six Country Study
Rao, N., Sun, J., Ng., M., Lee, D. & Becher, Y. (2013). The Development and Validation of the East Asia-Pacific Early Child Development Scales (EAP-ECDS): A Six Country Study.
The East Asia- Pacific Early Child Development Scales (EAP-ECDS) have been developed by the Early Childhood Development, Education and Policy Group, Faculty of Education, The University of Hong Kong. The project to develop and validate the Scales has been supported by UNICEF and the Open Society Foundations and is being overseen by the Asia-Pacific Regional Network for Early Childhood. The items on the Scales were developed based on the Early Learning and Development Standards from 7 countries in the East Asia and Pacific Region. The EAP-ECDS are considered to be appropriate for children aged 3-5 in this region. On the basis of the results of pilot studies conducted in China, Fiji, and Mongolia in 2011, the latest version of the EAP-ECDS includes 7 domains (Approaches to Learning; Cognitive Development; Cultural Knowledge and Participation; Language and Emergent Literacy; Motor Development; Health, Hygiene, and Safety; Socio-Emotional Development) and 85 items. The Scales are currently being validated on representative samples in Cambodia, China, Mongolia, Papua New Guinea, Timor-Leste and Vanuatu.