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Efficacy of Fun to Learn for the Young Program: Randomized Controlled Trial

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Abstract

Early intervention for children from disadvantaged backgrounds has been found to be effective in improving their learning and psychosocial outcomes. This study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of the Fun to Learn for the Young (FLY) program using randomized controlled trial design with no blinding of participants. Participants included 200 Hong Kong Chinese parent–child dyads (intervention:101; control: 99) with children aged 18 months from disadvantaged backgrounds. Participants were recruited from three non-governmental organizations. The intervention group participated in the 60-session FLY program which consisted of direct teaching to children and parent training. Parent participants from both groups completed questionnaires on child learning, child behavior and parenting before the intervention, at the end of 40 sessions, and 60 sessions. The children were individually assessed on their preschool concepts and language skills at these three time points. Results indicated that the children in the intervention group made more gains in preschool concepts, language skills, school readiness and motivation, compared with control group children (η p 2 = .018–.029). The results provided some initial evidence that the FLY program was an effective early intervention program in promoting child learning.

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Acknowledgements

This research is supported by The Simon K Y Lee Foundation, Hong Kong.

Funding

The study was funded by The Simon K. Y. Lee Foundation.

Author Contributions

C.L. designed and executed the study, conducted the data analyses, and wrote the paper. S.T. collaborated with the design, execution and writing of the study. B.L. collaborated with the execution and writing of the study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Applied Social Sciences, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, China

    Cynthia Leung & Betty Li

  2. Department of Social Work and Social Administration, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China

    Sandra Tsang

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  1. Cynthia Leung
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  2. Sandra Tsang
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  3. Betty Li
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Correspondence to Cynthia Leung.

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Conflict of Interest

Cynthia Leung has received research grants from The Simon K Y Lee Foundation, Hong Kong. Cynthia Leung declares that she has no competing interest. Sandra Tsang declares that she has no conflict of interest. Betty Li declares that she has no competing interests.

Ethics Approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed Consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual parent participants included in the study.

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Leung, C., Tsang, S. & Li, B. Efficacy of Fun to Learn for the Young Program: Randomized Controlled Trial. J Child Fam Stud 26, 2865–2878 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-017-0790-9

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