An Early Childhood Internet-based and Family-based Intervention Study

The proposed research consists of three phases. The first phase will be a cross-sectional survey with a sample of 1,000 cases from 60 nurseries cum kindergartens to explore the family demographics and developmental profiles of low-income children in comparison to others. The second phase will be a randomized control trail implementing two waves of a 10-month internet-based intervention with 200 toddler-parents dyads from 20 to 30 of the original 60 nurseries. Interventions will be delivered by older mentors professionally trained by the research team. All children, parents and elderly mentors will be evaluated through a set of outcome measurements to assess the effectiveness of the program. The last phase will involve the dissemination of research information that may become building blocks for policies on internet-based early childhood education, poverty alleviation and social mobility enhancement, as well as productive aging.