INFOGRAPHIC

Person helping another person who is sitting on stairs

What We Can Do About Toxic Stress

Those who've experienced toxic stress know best the toll it can take on the body and brain. But experiencing it is never the whole story. There are many supports that can help ease the burden.

View the Infographic

VIDEO

Icon of child playing soccer

Play in Early Childhood: The Role of Play in Any Setting

In this video, learn more about how play can foster children's resilience to hardship, and how the complex interactions involved when children play help build their brains.

Watch the Video

ANNOUNCEMENT

Photos of the 2019-2020 Djokovic Science and Innovation Fellows

Introducing the Djokovic Science and Innovation Fellows

This guide for practitioners explains the science behind our core life skills, what affects their development, and how practitioners can help.

Four Harvard doctoral students have been awarded the Djokovic Science and Innovation Fellowship for the 2019-2020 academic year.

Learn More

VIDEO

Icon of parent and child facing each other and holding hands

Stress & Resilience: How Toxic Stress Affects Us, and What We Can Do

This guide for practitioners explains the science behind our core life skills, what affects their development, and how practitioners can help.

When the stress in your life just doesn’t let up, it can seem like there’s nothing that can make it better. But there are resources that can help, and toxic stress doesn’t have to define your life.

View the Video

VIDEO

Serve and Return icon

How To: Five Steps for Brain-Building Serve and Return

This how-to video breaks down serve and return into 5 simple steps and features adults and young children doing each step together.

Watch the Video

INFOGRAPHIC

DNA Helix

What is Epigenetics? And How Does it Relate to Child Development?

This guide for practitioners explains the science behind our core life skills, what affects their development, and how practitioners can help.

In this infographic, learn about the science behind genes and their interaction with children's experiences—nature and nurture—and how these interactions affect child development.

Learn More

INFOGRAPHIC

Skills Icon

What is Executive Function? And How Does it Relate to Child Development?

This guide for practitioners explains the science behind our core life skills, what affects their development, and how practitioners can help.

This infographic explains what executive function skills are, how they're built, and why they matter.

Learn More
previous arrow
next arrow
Slider

Reaching for Breakthroughs with Science-Based Innovation

Child with scales of negative and positive outcomes

The science of early childhood is a source of new ideas that could be used to develop more effective policies & services focused on the early years of life.

Browse Key Concepts | Browse Deep Dives

Learn more and browse all of Science
Hand drawing with a marker on paper

Using current best practices as a starting point, the Center works with a network of fellow change agents to design, implement, and evaluate innovative, science-based practice models that achieve transformational change for vulnerable children and families.

Our Innovation Model | Innovation in Action

Learn more about Innovation & Application
Hands with puzzle pieces

Innovation does not happen in a vacuum. To bring about lasting, population-level change for children facing adversity, we must foster a movement of collective change.

Browse Key Concepts | Learning Communities in Action

Learn more about Collective Change

Connect With Us