InBrief: Early Childhood Mental Health
This video explains how improving children’s early environments can prevent initial difficulties from destabilizing later development and mental health.
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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 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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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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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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El lugar es importante: Guía para la aplicación de políticas
An Action Guide to complement 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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Place Matters: An Action Guide for Policy
An Action Guide to complement 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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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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How Early Childhood Experiences Affect Lifelong Health and Learning
How is ongoing, severe stress and adversity in early childhood connected to chronic disease in adults? And, what can we do about it? In this animated video, learn what the latest science tells us about how early experiences affect not only early learning and school readiness, but also lifelong health.
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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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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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The Brain Architects Podcast: COVID-19 Special Edition: Mental Health in a Locked-Down World
This episode of The Brain Architects addresses mental health amid the COVID-19 pandemic, including what supporting your own mental health can look like, as well as ways to support children you care for at this time.
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The Brain Architects Podcast: COVID-19 Special Edition: Creating Communities of Opportunity
While the current coronavirus pandemic is affecting all of us, it isn’t affecting all of us equally. In this episode, Dr. David Williams discusses ways in which the coronavirus pandemic is particularly affecting people of color in the U.S., and what that can mean for early childhood development.
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The Brain Architects Podcast: COVID-19 Special Edition: Self-Care Isn’t Selfish
In the second episode, Dr. Rahil Briggs, National Director of ZERO TO THREE’s HealthySteps program, discusses the current state of pediatrics, and why caregiver health is child health.
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The Brain Architects Podcast: COVID-19 Special Edition: A Different World
While the coronavirus pandemic has changed many things around the world, it has not stopped child development.
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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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What Is COVID-19? And How Does It Relate to Child Development?
This infographic explains the basics of what COVID-19 is, and what it can mean for stress levels in both children and the adults who care for them. It also offers some easy and concrete solutions to help caregivers ensure that both they and the children they care for don’t experience long-term effects of stress.
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Epigenetics and Child Development: How Children’s Experiences Affect Their Genes
What is epigenetics? In this infographic learn about the science behind genes and their interaction with the environment — nature and nurture — and how these interactions affect child development.
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The Brain Circuits Underlying Motivation: An Interactive Graphic
The brain circuits underlying motivation are critical for attention, learning, and decision-making. In this interactive graphic, learn about the different parts of the brain that affect motivation and how they interact.
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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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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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Training Module: Health Care Practitioner Module and Resources
The Florida State University Center for Prevention and Early Intervention Policy (CPEIP), working in collaboration with the Center on the Developing Child and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), developed these Early Childhood Health Optimization resources for pediatricians, OB/GYNs, and Care Coordinators across the state of Florida. Available free of charge via CPEIP’s website, the resources include an interactive, multimedia module (approximately 52 minutes) and discussion guide introducing practitioners to the science of early childhood development, toxic stress, executive function, resilience, and mental health.