The first Innocenti Global Seminar, which was sponsored by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), investigated the topic of Early Child Development (ECD). This summary report focuses on the three objectives of the seminar, which were to: (1) review critical issues in the field of child development so as to provide a rationale for investing…

This theme issue of the Bernard van Leer Foundation's "Newsletter" is devoted to approaches to working with disadvantaged children up to 3 years of age. An introduction describes the crucial period from before birth to 3 years, noting that although the mother's body provides the an essential part of the environment, other easily…

This paper presents a general rationale for investing in early childhood development (ECD) in Latin America that derives from scientific evidence about the importance of the early years in the formation of intelligence, personality, and social behavior. This rationale argues that the economic returns of ECD programs can be quite high (through…