Reports & Working Papers

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Extreme Heat Affects Early Childhood Development and Health

This new working paper from the Early Childhood Scientific Council on Equity and the Environment (ECSCEE) summarizes the current knowledge on how heat impacts the development of biological systems. It’s the first in a series from ECSCEE focusing on the ways that environmental conditions shape young children’s development.

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Place Matters: The Environment We Create Shapes the Foundations of Healthy Development

The new working paper from the National Scientific Council on the Developing Child explores the influence of the built and natural environments on child development and lifelong health.

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Cover image of working paper 15, "Connecting the Brain to the Rest of the Body: Early Childhood Development and Lifelong Health Are Deeply Intertwined"

Connecting the Brain to the Rest of the Body: Early Childhood Development and Lifelong Health Are Deeply Intertwined

The rapidly advancing frontiers of 21st-century biological sciences now provide compelling evidence that the foundations of lifelong health are built early, with increasing evidence of the importance of the prenatal period and first few years after birth.

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Understanding Motivation: Building the Brain Architecture That Supports Learning, Health, and Community Participation

A healthy, engaged community depends on people achieving to the best of their potential, contributing actively to the economy and public well-being, and helping the next generation to thrive. A complex set of intertwined social and biological factors influences people’s motivation to participate actively and productively in schools, jobs, and communities–and to persevere in the […]

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Three Principles to Improve Outcomes for Children and Families

Understanding how the experiences children have starting at birth, even prenatally, affect lifelong outcomes—combined with new knowledge about the core capabilities adults need to thrive as parents and in the workplace—provides a strong foundation upon which policymakers and civic leaders can design a shared and more effective agenda.

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Child Welfare Systems report

Applying the Science of Child Development in Child Welfare Systems

This paper shows how the science of child development can be leveraged to strengthen and improve the public child welfare system so that it can better support the children, families, and communities it serves.

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A cover image from the Best Practices to Breakthrough Impacts paper, showing the title and an image of two parents kissing their baby

From Best Practices to Breakthrough Impacts

This report synthesizes 15 years of dramatic advances in the science of early childhood and early brain development, analyzes evidence generated by 50 years of program evaluation research, and presents a framework for driving science-based innovation in early childhood policy and practice.

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Building Core Capabilities for Life

This report identifies the core capabilities adults need to succeed in life and support the development of the next generation, how these capabilities develop, and what compromises them, and provides approaches for helping adults to build these core skills.

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Supportive Relationships and Active Skill-Building Strengthen the Foundations of Resilience

This working paper from the National Scientific Council on the Developing Child explains how supportive relationships with adults help children develop “resilience,” or the set of skills needed to respond to adversity and thrive.

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A Decade of Science Informing Policy: The Story of the National Scientific Council on the Developing Child

This retrospective report describes the history of how the National Scientific Council on the Developing Child came to be, what its impact has been, how its members work, and why the Council has made a difference.

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The Science of Neglect: The Persistent Absence of Responsive Care Disrupts the Developing Brain

This working paper from the National Scientific Council on the Developing Child explains why young children who experience severe deprivation or neglect can experience a range of negative consequences.

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Building the Brain’s “Air Traffic Control” System: How Early Experiences Shape the Development of Executive Function

This working paper from the National Scientific Council on the Developing Child explains how executive function skills develop, what can disrupt their development, and how supporting them pays off in school and life.

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The Foundations of Lifelong Health Are Built in Early Childhood

This report explains how the earliest years lay the groundwork for lifelong health.

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Early Experiences Can Alter Gene Expression and Affect Long-Term Development

Early experiences can affect how and if genes are expressed. This working paper from the National Scientific Council on the Developing Child explains how children’s early environmental influences shape their developing brain architecture.

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Persistent Fear and Anxiety Can Affect Young Children’s Learning and Development

This working paper from the National Scientific Council on the Developing Child explains how early exposure to circumstances that produce persistent fear and chronic anxiety can have lifelong effects on physical and mental health.

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Maternal Depression Can Undermine the Development of Young Children

This working paper from the National Scientific Council on the Developing Child and the National Forum on Early Childhood Policy and Programs examines why addressing the consequences of serious depression in parents and caregivers could support the future prosperity and well-being of both children and society as a whole.

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Workforce Development, Welfare Reform, and Child Well-Being

This working paper from the National Forum on Early Childhood Policy and Programs summarizes evaluations of family self-sufficiency programs to show that policies can achieve both positive economic benefits for parents and positive educational effects for their children.

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Establishing a Level Foundation for Life: Mental Health Begins in Early Childhood

This working paper from the National Scientific Council on the Developing Child explains why sound mental health is the foundation that supports all other aspects of human development—from the formation of friendships to achievement in school.

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The Science of Early Childhood Development: Closing the Gap Between What We Know and What We Do

This report outlines seven core concepts of development, and explains their implications for policies and programs that could significantly improve children’s lives.

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A Science-Based Framework for Early Childhood Policy

This report provides a framework for using evidence to improve child outcomes in learning, behavior, and health.

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The Timing and Quality of Early Experiences Combine to Shape Brain Architecture

This working paper from the National Scientific Council on the Developing Child explains key scientific advances in understanding why the early years matter for brain development, as well as the implications of those findings for policy.

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Early Exposure to Toxic Substances Damages Brain Architecture

This working paper from the National Scientific Council on the Developing Child explains how exposure to toxins before birth or early in life can have a devastating and lifelong effect on the developing architecture of the brain.

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Excessive Stress Disrupts the Architecture of the Developing Brain

This working paper from the National Scientific Council on the Developing Child defines the concept of toxic stress—what happens when children experience severe, prolonged adversity without adult support.

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Children’s Emotional Development Is Built into the Architecture of Their Brains

This working paper from the National Scientific Council on the Developing Child discusses how a child’s capacity to regulate emotions develops in a complex interaction with his or her environment and ongoing mental, physical, and social development. It also discusses the implications of this research for policies affecting young children, their caregivers, and service providers.

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Working Paper 1 cover

Young Children Develop in an Environment of Relationships

This working paper from the National Scientific Council on the Developing Child explains why an environment of relationships is crucial for the development of a child’s brain architecture, which lays the foundation for later developmental outcomes.

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