Summer has come in a twinkling. Since the number of new COVID-19 cases reported has continued to decline, now it’s about time for parents to plan a fun trip with children.

This issue covers several items of interest: an introduction to 1970 British Cohort Study (or BCS70), some KIT research findings, a brief profile of Prof. Huei-Mei Liu at National Taiwan Normal University, and a book review of Hug, a storybook written by Jez Alborough about the pleasure of giving and receiving good hugs.

1970 British Cohort Study (BCS70)

BCS70 is a research project that follows the lives of around 17,000 people born in the UK in a single week of 1970 from April 5 to April 11. Information related to the participant’s health, physical, educational and social development, and economic circumstances has been collected. The birth survey started in 1970; since then, there have been nine sweeps of all cohort members, and the most recent sweep was done in 2017. There should have been a sweep in 2020, but it was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and will hopefully be launched in summer 2021.

Some sub studies have been conducted to expand the study’s scope. The Age 2 and 3.5 sweeps have been collected to examine the link between nutrition intake and early childhood development. Also, cohort members at age 21 completed language and math assessments. In addition, in 2008/2009, BSC70 twins were asked to fill out a postal questionnaire. Until now, more than 770 reports on the basis of BCS70 data have been published. Please visit https://cls.ucl.ac.uk/cls-studies/1970-british-cohort-study/ for more information.

Highlight of KIT Findings

Cognitive development: The child knows the association between visual and auditory information of a toy.

Children at 3 months of age (N=6567)

🢡Proficient: 2.6%, Intermediate: 6.6%, Beginning: 6%, Not yet: 84.8%

Children at 6 months of age (N=6725)

🢡Proficient: 13.3%, Intermediate: 12.4%, Beginning: 15.2%, Not yet: 59.1%

Children at 1 years of age (N=6874)

🢡Proficient: 41.9%, Intermediate: 23.3%, Beginning: 17.9%, Not yet: 16.8%

Language development: When the one-year-old child turns over a page of a book, the direction of the book is correct (e.g., the book is not placed upside down). (N= 6874)

🢡Proficient: 2.6%, Intermediate: 3.3%, Beginning: 7.4%, Not yet: 86.7%

Physical-motor development: The one-year-old child can hold a cup to drink. (N= 6874)

🢡Proficient: 16%, Intermediate: 11%, Beginning: 18.4%, Not yet: 54.6%

Social-emotional development:

(1) The one-year-old child turns around to look for me or locates my whereabouts when I am not near him/her. (N= 6874)

🢡Always: 43.9%, Often: 34.6%, Sometimes: 16.2%, Rarely: 3.3%, Never: 0.2%

(2) When I tell the one-year-old child “it’s ok”, he/she approaches the objects which originally scare him/her. (N= 6874)

🢡Always: 6.1%, Often: 14%, Sometimes: 23.7%, Rarely: 18.4%, Never: 37.8%

Responds from parents: I kiss or hug the one-year-old child (N= 6874).

🢡Very often: 86.5%, Often: 12.1%, Sometimes: 1.2%, Rarely: 0.2%

Responds from caregivers:

(1) The nanny/ educarer lets me know that I am a good parent (N=296).

🢡Strongly agree: 30%, Agree: 66.6%, Disagree: 3.2%, Strongly disagree: 0.2%

(2) The parent lets me know that I am a good nanny/educarer (N=296).

🢡Strongly agree: 23.1%, Agree: 67%, Disagree: 9.9%

About Prof. Huei-Mei Liu

Prof. Huei-Mei Liu works at the Department of Special Education, National Taiwan Normal University, and her research interests primarily lie in communicative disorders, language development, and hearing impairment. Since the KIT project started, she has participated in it as a collaborative investigator responsible for developing the language assessment for young children. As a co-author of the Mandarin-Chinese Communicative Development Inventory (Taiwan), a commonly used instrument for assessing the language proficiency of local young children aged 0 to 3, Prof. Liu is the key person who makes the development of the KIT language assessment a success, i.e., a tool with high validity and reliability.

Book Review

Hug, a picture book written by Jez Alborough about the pleasure of giving and receiving good hugs, delineates the human need to express love. Its English version is available on Amazon (https://www.amazon.com/Hug-Jez-Alborough/dp/0763645109), and readers can find its Chinese version at Books.com.tw (https://www.books.com.tw/products/0010752440). Click https://youtu.be/ySDRUL6E5YU to listen.