- Multimedia
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VIDEO
InBrief: Early Childhood Mental Health
Science tells us that the foundations of sound mental health are built early in life. Early experiences—including children’s relationships with parents, caregivers, relatives, teachers, and peers—interact with genes to shape the architecture of the developing brain. Disruptions in this developmental process can impair a child’s capacities for learning and relating to others, with lifelong implications.
This edition of the InBrief series explains how improving children’s environments of relationships and experiences early in life can prevent initial difficulties from destabilizing later development and mental health.
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NEW VIDEOS
InBrief: Resilience Series
These three videos provide an overview of why some children demonstrate “resilience,” or an adaptive response to serious hardship, how resilience develops, and how to strengthen it in children. View videos & read more about this series >>
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VIDEO
InBrief: The Science
of Neglect
Extensive biological and developmental research shows significant neglect—the ongoing disruption or significant absence of caregiver responsiveness—can cause more harm to a young child’s development than overt physical abuse, including subsequent cognitive delays, impairments in executive functioning, and disruptions of the body’s stress response. This edition of the InBrief series explains why significant deprivation is so harmful in the earliest years of life and why effective interventions are likely to pay significant dividends in better long-term outcomes in learning, health, and parenting of the next generation. View video >>
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VIDEO SERIES
Three Core Concepts in Early Development
1. Experiences Build Brain Architecture | 2. Serve & Return Interaction Shapes Brain Circuitry | 3. Toxic Stress Derails Healthy Development
This three-part video series from the Center and the National Scientific Council on the Developing Child depicts how advances in neuroscience, molecular biology, and genomics now give us a much better understanding of how early experiences are built into our bodies and brains, for better or for worse. View videos & read more about this series >>
- Working Papers
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NEW WORKING PAPER
Supportive Relationships and Active Skill-Building Strengthen the Foundations of Resilience
Decades of research in the behavioral and social sciences have produced substantial evidence that children who do well despite serious hardship have had at least one stable and committed relationship with a supportive parent, caregiver, or other adult. This new Working Paper from the National Scientific Council on the Developing Child explains how protective factors in the social environment and highly responsive biological systems interact to produce resilience, or the ability to adapt in the face of significant adversity.
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WORKING PAPER
The Science of Neglect:
The Persistent Absence of Responsive Care Disrupts the Developing Brain
Extensive biological and developmental research over the past 30 years has generated substantial evidence that young children who experience severe deprivation or significant neglect—defined broadly as the ongoing disruption or significant absence of caregiver responsiveness—bear the burdens of a range of adverse consequences. This new Working Paper from the National Scientific Council on the Developing Child explains why significant deprivation is so harmful in the earliest years of life and why effective interventions are likely to pay significant dividends in better long-term outcomes in learning, health, and parenting of the next generation. Read more & download PDF >>
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Building the Brain's "Air Traffic Control" System
Being able to focus, hold, and work with information in mind, filter distractions, and switch gears is like having an air traffic control system at a busy airport to manage the arrivals and departures of dozens of planes on multiple runways. In the brain, this air traffic control mechanism is called executive functioning, a group of skills that helps us to focus on multiple streams of information at the same time, and revise plans as necessary. This Working Paper from the Council and the National Forum on Early Childhood Policy and Programs explains how these lifelong skills develop, what can disrupt their development, and how supporting them pays off in school and life.
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View all Working Papers >>
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- Reports
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The Foundations of Lifelong Health Are Built in Early Childhood
A vital and productive society with a prosperous and sustainable future is built on a foundation of healthy child development. Health in the earliest years—beginning with the future mother’s well-being before she becomes pregnant—lays the groundwork for a lifetime of vitality. This report was co-authored by the Council and the National Forum on Early Childhood Policy and Programs.
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A Science-Based Framework for Early Childhood Policy
This ground-breaking framework for using evidence to improve outcomes in learning, behavior, and health for vulnerable children, co-authored by the members of the Council and the National Forum on Early Childhood Policy and Programs. Combining knowledge from neuroscience, behavioral and developmental science, economics, and 40 years of early childhood program evaluation, the authors provide an informed, nonpartisan, pragmatic framework to guide policymakers toward science-based policies that improve the lives of young children and benefit society as a whole. Read more & download PDF >>
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- About the Council
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About the Council
Established in 2003, the National Scientific Council is a multi-disciplinary collaboration of scientists and scholars from universities across the U.S. and Canada designed to bring the science of early childhood and early brain development to bear on public policy decision-making. The mission of the Council is to synthesize and communicate science to help inform policies that promote successful learning, adaptive behavior, and sound physical and mental health for all young children. Central to this concept is the ongoing generation, analysis, and integration of knowledge and the critical task of educating policymakers, civic leaders, and the general public about the rapidly growing science of early childhood development and its underlying neurobiology. Read more about the Council's mission & history >>
Learn about the Council's members >>
View & download the Council's publications >>
Council History
A Decade of Science Informing Policy
In recognition of ten years since the publication of the Council's first working paper, this retrospective tells the story of how the group came to be, what its impact has been, how its members work, and why the Council has made a difference.
Project for Babies
The Project for Babies is an initiative of the University of Minnesota Center for Early Education and Development. In 2012, the Project for Babies developed an educational video on the importance of the early years. The video features Regents Professor Megan Gunnar, Director of the Institute for Child Development at the University of Minnesota and member of the National Scientific Council on the Developing Child. The video consists of four sections, each approximately five minutes in length.
View these videos as a YouTube playlist >>
Read more about the Project for Babies >>
Council Members
Learn about the Council's unique, multi-disciplinary, multi-university group of scientists and scholars. More >>
Council Publications
The Council has created a series of publications to marry the science of early childhood and brain development with state-of-the-art communications research designed to effectively translate that knowledge for non-scientific audiences. More >>
Major support for the Council is currently being provided by: The Alliance for Early Success, Buffett Early Childhood Fund, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, and the Norlien Foundation.
