A productive and sustainable society thrives when it is built on a foundation of healthy child development.  Research from Jack P. Shonkoff, M.D., founding director of Harvard's Center on the Developing Child, shows that early experiences establish either a strong or weak foundation in a child's brain architecture.  The way in which a child's brain develops during the early years, beginning before birth, provides the basis for all future learning, behavior and health.  In the first few years of life, 700 new neural connections are formed every second.  These are the connections that build brain architecture – the foundation upon which all later learning, behavior, and health depend. Positive early experiences help to strengthen developing biological systems, fostering children that are more likely to grow into healthy adults.

To be successful, young children need to be enriched through stable, safe and supportive environments that offer adequate nutrition, positive relationships and rich learning opportunities.


» Read Economist and Nobel Prize winner James Heckman's case for investing in early childhood - The Heckman Equation.


Research and reports

» The Science of Early Childhood Development by Jack P. Shonkoff

» The Foundations of Lifelong Health are Built in Early Childhood by the National Scientific Council on the Developing Child and the National Forum on Early Childhood Policy and Programs

» Durham's Partnership for Children reports and research