Moving Upstream: Confronting Racism to Open Up Children’s Potential
The scientific evidence is clear and growing: racism imposes unique and substantial stressors on the daily lives of families raising young children of color.
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5 Facts About Health That Are Often Misunderstood
Did you know that interactions among genes, experiences, age, and environments influence every biological system in the body, with especially powerful effects in the earliest years? Learn five quick facts about health that are frequently misunderstood.
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InBrief: Understanding the Science of Motivation
Why are some people motivated to participate productively in their community and more likely to persevere in the face of setbacks? To unlock this puzzle, it is helpful to understand the underlying mechanisms in the brain that develop in childhood and build the foundation for later complex behavior.
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Health and Learning Are Deeply Interconnected in the Body: An Action Guide for Policymakers
Three key messages from the science of early childhood development, adversity, and resilience can help guide our thinking in a time when innovation has never been more needed in public systems to improve both health and learning.
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InBrief: Connecting the Brain to the Rest of the Body
The environments we create and the experiences we provide for young children and their families affect not just the developing brain, but also many other physiological systems, including cardiovascular function, immune responsiveness, and metabolic regulation.
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How to Help Families and Staff Build Resilience During the COVID-19 Outbreak
What can we do to build up and strengthen resilience during the COVID-19 outbreak? How can we build resilience to plan ahead for future times of crisis? This resource, with practical tips and suggestions, presents three science-based ways that we can help tip the resilience scale for families and program staff.
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How to Support Children (and Yourself) During the COVID-19 Outbreak
Even during this uncertain time, it’s a sure thing that our children are still learning, growing, and developing. But, supporting a child’s healthy development can be simple and free! (And, it may even help relieve your stress.) Here are four steps to focus on right now.
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InBrief: Applying the Science of Child Development in Child Welfare Systems
The healthy development of all children is essential for a thriving and prosperous community, and we now know a great deal about how child development works, as well as how to prevent and address problems. So, how can we use insights from cutting-edge science to improve the well-being and long-term life prospects of the most […]
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Motivation and Early Childhood Policy: Science-Based Approaches for Policymakers and Public Systems
The brain circuits underlying motivation are critical for attention, learning, and decision-making. When these circuits have either not developed in a balanced and healthy way or have been chemically hijacked by addictions, challenging life circumstances can overpower the best of intentions. Programs intended to support parents and children facing adversity often find that participation is […]
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How to Motivate Children: Science-Based Approaches for Parents, Caregivers, and Teachers
The intrinsic motivation to learn about the world around us begins in infancy. This type of motivation can either be encouraged or suppressed by the experiences adults provide for children. Psychological research points to a set of promising approaches that parents and practitioners can use to promote positive motivation and learning during development.
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5 Facts About Motivation That Are Often Misunderstood
What is motivation, and how does it work? Learn five quick facts about motivation that are frequently misconstrued or misunderstood.
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5 Steps for Brain-Building Serve and Return
Serve and return interactions make everyday moments fun and become second nature with practice. By taking small moments during the day to do serve and return, you build up the foundation for children’s lifelong learning, behavior, and health—and their skills for facing life’s challenges.
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8 Things to Remember about Child Development
In this important list, featured in the From Best Practices to Breakthrough Impacts report, the Center on the Developing Child sets the record straight about some aspects of early child development.
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InBrief: The Science of Resilience
This brief summarizes the science of resilience and explains why understanding it will help us design policies and programs that enable more children to reach their full potential.
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InBrief: Early Childhood Mental Health
This brief explains why the foundation for sound mental health is built early in life, as early experiences—which include children’s relationships with parents, caregivers, relatives, teachers, and peers—shape the architecture of the developing brain.
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InBrief: The Science of Neglect
This brief explains why neglect, or the absence of responsive, supportive care, can affect the formation of the developing brain, impairing later learning, behavior, and health.
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InBrief: Executive Function
This brief describes why executive function skills are essential for school achievement, success in work, and healthy lives.
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InBrief: The Foundations of Lifelong Health
This brief explains why a vital and productive society with a prosperous and sustainable future is built on a foundation of healthy child development.
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InBrief: Early Childhood Program Effectiveness
This brief discusses how society can ensure that children have a solid foundation for a productive future by creating and implementing effective early childhood programs and policies.
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InBrief: The Impact of Early Adversity on Children’s Development
This brief explains how providing stable, responsive, nurturing relationships in the earliest years of life can prevent or even reverse the damaging effects of early life stress, with lifelong benefits for learning, behavior, and health.
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InBrief: The Science of Early Childhood Development
This brief explains how the science of early brain development can inform investments in early childhood. These basic concepts, established over decades of neuroscience and behavioral research, help illustrate why child development—particularly from birth to five years—is a foundation for a prosperous and sustainable society.