中国农村贫困地区0—3岁婴幼儿面临的挑战及可能的解决方案

Brain development during the first 1000 days of life is critical and has the greatest return to investment. This paper describes the challenges for cognitive, language and social emotional development, as well as health, for children 0-3 years old in rural China. Based on the result of randomized control trials on early childhood development, we also offer some possible solutions to address these challenges. We find that almost half of the children surveyed in rural China are at risk for cognitive delays, and the risk of delay increases over time. The reason behind this is that caregivers in poor rural areas overall do not engage in inter- active parenting practices; they are also at risk for depression and do not engage in proper feeding practices. Only 13 percent of the caregivers tell stores to their children using story books. In addition, 23.5 percent of caregivers experience depression. Most of the caregivers also lack knowledge of proper feeding practices for young children. Based on these findings, th