SINGAPORE STUDENTS’ COGNITIVE, SOCIO-EMOTIONAL AND PHYSICAL WELL-BEING IN MIDDLE-LATE CHILDHOOD
Symposium Overview
This symposium aims to bring together researchers, educators, and policymakers to better understand the factors that influence children's development as they approach the end of their primary school years and transit to the next phase of development and education.
The symposium will draw on recent findings from the Singapore Kindergarten Impact Project Follow-Up (SKIP-Up) study, which collected data from over 1,700 children, their families, and teachers across 130 primary schools in Singapore. The SKIP-Up study followed up on a cohort of children from the longitudinal early childhood Singapore Kindergarten Impact Project (SKIP) together with a new cohort of students joining the SKIP-Up study in late primary school. Close to 1,000 students from both cohorts are currently being followed up across their secondary school years in the DRivers, Enablers, and pathways of Adolescent developMent in Singapore (DREAMS) study.
Join us as we delve into insights on the home, school, and individual factors associated with children's cognitive, physical, and socio-emotional well-being in middle-late childhood, developmental patterns from early to middle-late childhood, links from early home and school experiences, as well as preliminary insights into transitions to secondary school. Featuring a keynote address by Professor Pasco Fearon from the University of Cambridge and a panel discussion with invited specialists, a central focus guiding discussions and reflections will be how best to support and optimise children's development across domains, with particular attention to the importance of socio-emotional well-being in shaping children's broader developmental trajectories.
Target Audience
Ministry of Education (MOE) specialists, policymakers, school leaders and principals as well as academics and researchers from institutes of higher learning.
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Keynote Speaker and Panellists
Professor Pasco Fearon
Director, Centre for Family Research
University of Cambridge
https://www.psychol.cam.ac.uk/staff/professor-pasco-fearon
Professor Pasco Fearon is a developmental and clinical psychologist whose world-leading research focuses on child development and children’s mental health. A unifying theme across his work is the commitment to understanding and promoting positive developmental outcomes, mental health, and wellbeing in children.
Professor Kerry Lee
President and Chair Professor of Child Development
Yew Chung College of Early Childhood Education
https://www.yccece.edu.hk/en/about-us/presidents-office?category=biography
Trained as a cognitive developmental psychologist, he has over two decades of experience studying how executive functioning, working memory, and numeracy skills develop in childhood. His research focuses on how individual and contextual factors shape children’s learning and cognitive growth, with a particular interest in mathematical achievement and school readiness. Prior to his appointment at YCCECE, Prof. Kerry held senior academic and leadership positions at the Education University of Hong Kong and the National Institute of Education, Singapore. He has led and contributed to several large-scale longitudinal studies on child development, and his work continues to inform evidence-based educational practices and early intervention policies across Asia.
Dr Lim Choon Guan
Senior Consultant Psychiatrist and Chief of the Department of Developmental Psychiatry
Singapore's Institute of Mental Health (IMH)
Dr. Lim Choon Guan specialises in child and adolescent mental health, with a focus on neurodevelopmental conditions such as ADHD and autism spectrum disorders. Dr. Lim also serves as an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Duke-NUS Medical School and Nanyang Technological University.
Dr Ng Ee Lynn
Assistant Centre Director and Senior Education Research Scientist
Centre for Research in Child Development, NIE
https://dr.ntu.edu.sg/cris/rp/rp01577
Dr Ng Ee Lynn specialises in early childhood education. Her research focuses on how children’s executive functioning and self-regulation skills influence learning outcomes, with the goal of developing interventions to support children with diverse needs. She is also interested in the impact of educator well-being and preschool quality on children’s learning and development. She was the Principal Investigator (PI) of the SKIP project and is a Co-PI of the SKIP-Up project.
SKIP-Up Team
Dr. Fannie Khng Kiat Hui is a cognitive psychologist whose research focuses on executive functioning, attention, and self-regulation in children and adolescents. She leads the SKIP-Up study and Project 5 of the DREAMS initiative, examining cognitive and emotional development from childhood into adolescence. Her work integrates neuroscience methods to inform educational practices and interventions.
Dr. Ng Ee Lynn is a Senior Education Research Scientist at the Centre for Research in Child Development within the Office of Education Research at NIE. Her research aims to identify effective ways to support children’s learning in the classroom. Using both experimental and correlational approaches, she examines how individual differences in executive functioning and self-regulation, along with contextual factors such as socio-economic status, teacher well-being, and preschool quality, influence children's learning outcomes.
Dr. David Munez is an Education Research Scientist at the Centre for Research in Child Development within the Office of Education Research at NIE. He was a recipient of the University of Salamanca Extraordinary Award for Doctoral Dissertations in 2012. Through his extensive research experience in longitudinal research, he examines the intersection of cognitive science and education; particularly on the development of early numeracy skills and the role of environmental factors.
Prof. Kenneth Poon Kin Loong is the Lien Foundation Chair Professor of Education at NIE, NTU, and leads the national longitudinal DREAMS study, which examines how personal, social, and environmental factors shape adolescent development. Trained as a clinical psychologist, his research focuses on neurodevelopment, inclusive education, and the impact of home and school environments on learning and well-being.
Dr. Beth Ann O’Brien is Head of Early and Middle Childhood Research at CRCD, NIE. Her research focuses on language, reading, and cognitive development in early childhood, with a special interest in bilingualism and literacy in diverse learners. She leads the GIBBER study, which examines how cognitive and environmental factors shape bilingual development.
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Dr. Sun He is a Senior Education Research Scientist at CRCD, NIE, specialising in bilingual education and biliteracy development in English and Mother Tongue Languages. Her research explores how bilingualism relates to children’s learning and socio-emotional well-being. She is particularly interested in the long-term impact of bilingualism on child development.
Associate Professor Stella Tsotsi, a Professor with the Mental Health and Addicition Division within the Department of Nursing and Health Promotion in Oslo Metropolitan University. Prof. Tsotsi’s earned her Ph.D from the Aristotle University of Tessaloniki in 2013. With research on the susceptibility of the development of psychopathology in children and adolescents, Prof. Tsotsi devises and implements early interventions to assist the more cognitively disadvantaged children in buffering the risk.
Professor Michael Chia conducts pioneering research in pediatric exercise science, focusing on physical activity, fitness, and health in children and adolescents. He leads the PRIDE for PLAY project, a globally recognized project aimed at enhancing physical activity in schools, and has developed tools like SMALLQ® to support early childhood studies. His current work explores how play environments impact motor competence and socio-emotional well-being in young children.
Prof. Rebecca Bull is a Professor of Numeracy at Macquarie University and a former Principal Research Scientist at NIE, Singapore. Her research focuses on numerical cognition, working memory, and executive functioning in early childhood, with an emphasis on individual and contextual influences on learning. She has led large-scale longitudinal studies, including the Singapore Kindergarten Impact Project (SKIP).
Professor Kerry Lee is the President and Chair Professor of Child Development at Yew Chung College of Early Childhood Education (YCCECE) in Hong Kong. Trained as a cognitive developmental psychologist, he has over two decades of experience studying how executive functioning, working memory, and numeracy skills develop in childhood. His research focuses on how individual and contextual factors shape children’s learning and cognitive growth, with a particular interest in mathematical achievement and school readiness. Prior to his appointment at YCCECE, Prof. Kerry held senior academic and leadership positions at the Education University of Hong Kong and the National Institute of Education, Singapore. He has led and contributed to several large-scale longitudinal studies on child development, and his work continues to inform evidence-based educational practices and early intervention policies across Asia.
Dr. Shaun Goh Kok Yew, an Education Research Scientist at the Center for Research in Child Development within the Office of Education Research at NIE, earned his Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the Australian National University in 2015. Through his research, Dr. Goh aims to understand how the potential of every child can be maximized in two key developmental areas of (1) low language proficiency and (2) low socio-emotional mental health. On top of his research portfolio, Dr. Goh is also a licensed psychologist in Singapore and in Australia.
Dr. Keri McCrickerd is an Assistant Professor at NUS and a Research Scientist at SICS, A*STAR. Her research focuses on eating behaviours and appetite regulation in early childhood, exploring how cognitive and environmental factors shape food intake. She contributes to the GUSTO study to inform interventions promoting healthy eating and obesity prevention.
Dr. Melvin Chan is a Senior Education Research Scientist at NIE, NTU, with research spanning motivation, youth development, and future-readiness. He leads Project 1 of the DREAMS study, which examines how students navigate secondary school pathways and the factors shaping their long-term learning and well-being. He is well-versed in advanced statistical methods, including SEM, multilevel and longitudinal modelling, mixture models, and Rasch analysis.
Ms. Jessie Cheang I-Ling is Deputy Director of Psychological & Educational Research at MOE, Singapore. She specialises in applied measurement and integrating psychological insights into education to enhance student outcomes. She was awarded the Public Administration Medal (Bronze) in 2016 for her contributions to public service.