臺灣地區在2011年開始實施五歲免學費教育計畫，此計畫被期許能造福許多幼兒與家長，反映出政府對幼兒教育與保育的重視。然而，關於此計畫的補助對學前幼兒認知能力的影響，及此計畫能否縮小弱勢幼童與其他優勢幼童的學習差距等問題，目前所知有限。本研究運用對五歲學前幼兒的兩波追蹤調查，並進行縱貫性分析，以探究此計畫中的加額補助與幼兒認知能力發展的關係。本研究結果顯示加額補助對幼兒認知能力發展有顯著的影響，且來自較低所得或原住民家庭更有可能因領取加額補助，進而減小與非低所得和非原住民幼兒同儕的差距。這顯示臺灣五歲幼兒免學費教育計畫的確有助於縮小優勢與弱勢家庭幼兒的認知能力差距。

“The Five-Year-Old Free Education Program (FYFEP)” was implemented by the Taiwanese government in 2011. A large proportion of young children and their parents were expected to be benefited by the program, which reflected the importance and concerns of the government in the early childhood education and care. However, only limited information was available about “the effects of this program’s subsidy on preschoolers’ cognitive competence,” and whether “this program’s subsidy could really minimize the development gap between disadvantaged and advantaged young children.” In order to examine the relationships between additional edu-care subsidy of the program and the development of children’s cognitive competence, the researcher used two consequences of follow-up survey for five-year-old preschoolers in Taiwan to construct a longitudinal analysis. The findings of this study showed that additional child edu-care subsidy had significant influences on the development of young children’s cognitive competence. The preschoolers from the lower income families or aboriginal families were more likely to accept additional child edu-care subsidy of free education program. Therefore, it would reduce the development gap in cognitive competence between the lower income and the aboriginal families and their counterparts—the normal income and the non-aboriginal families. The FYFEP really diminished the development gap in cognitive competence between disadvantaged and advantaged young children.