Child Development

Knowledge of child development is the foundation for work with children, and therefore is a requirement for all those seeking to protect children. It influences every aspect of a child from physical growth and mental abilities, to how they express emotions, think and behave.

Healthy development takes children through stages, whereby they obtain an increasing number of physical, mental, and emotional skills in order to become independent adults. These stages provide benchmarks for determining if a child is developing normally. Without knowledge of the normal developmental stages of a child, a worker cannot identify developmental delays, assess the impact of abuse, or make recommendations regarding the child’s physical, mental or emotional health. Understanding what a child is capable of allows adults to communicate on their level and provide age-appropriate responses and interventions.

Knowledge of early childhood development and attachment behaviour is particularly important for protection workers. The physical health and care a child experiences as an infant will affect their development into adulthood. A child needs to have experienced a positive attachment by the age of 3 in order to develop cognitively, physically, socially, and psychologically. Healthy attachments come from the close bond a child experiences when provided with the responsive and stable care of at least one adult. In a residential home, children are less likely to receive the amount of individual attention from a permanent caretaker that they require. Children under 12, in particular, benefit more from a kinship, foster or adoption placement where they can experience closer relationships.

Observation of a child’s attachment to caretakers will influence the type of care, permanency plan, and level of support services offered. It can also aid in the identification of abuse.

This section contains information on the importance of child development knowledge, guidance on the ages and stages of children, and attachment theory.

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Family Engagement: Partnering With Families to Improve Child Welfare Outcomes

Child Welfare Information Gateway, 01 Sep 2021

Engaging families in the casework process promotes the safety, permanency, and well-being of children and families in the child welfare system and is central to successful practice. Effective family engagement occurs when child welfare practitioners actively collaborate and partner with the family network, including maternal and paternal relatives and fictive kin, throughout their involvement with the child welfare system and recognizing them as the experts on their respective situations. This bulletin for professionals provides an overview of the foundational elements of the family engagement approach, followed by strategies and promising practices for implementing it.

Where do rich countries stand on childcare?

Anna Gromada and Dominic Richardson - UNICEF Office of Research – Innocenti, 01 Jun 2021

This report published by UNICEF’s Office of Research – Innocenti, ranks countries across the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the European Union (EU) based on their national childcare and parental leave policies.

South-East Asia multisectoral meeting to promote nurturing care for early childhood development: Recordings and Presentations

WHO South-East Asia Regional Office in collaboration with UNICEF, 27 Apr 2021

The WHO South-East Asia Regional Office in collaboration with UNICEF organized a 3-day virtual meeting from 27 to 29 April, 2021.

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Care for child development implementation in East Africa: Experiences from Kenya, Tanzania and Zambia

Early Childhood Development Network (ECDAN), UNICEF, Aga Khan Foundation, Lego Foundation, Africa Early Childhood Development Network, 21 Apr 2021

This webinar, informed by both detailed case studies developed by the Aga Khan Development Network and UNICEF programme implementation in Zambia with the support of the LEGO Foundation, provided a unique opportunity to engage with and understand the experiences of government, development partners, civil society, frontline health workers, and parents in Eastern and Southern Africa.

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Nurturing care for children’s health and wellbeing in humanitarian settings

World Health Organization (WHO) and Nurturing Care, 15 Apr 2021

This video explores the pivotal role of health care practitioners in supporting nurturing care for children.

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70 to 700 to 70,000: Lessons from the Jamaica Experiment

M. Caridad Araujo, Marta Rubio-Codina, Norbert Schady - Inter-American Development Bank, Social Protection and Health Division , 01 Apr 2021

This document compares three versions of the same home visiting model, aimed at improving parent-child interactions and child development: the well-known Jamaica model, which was gradually scaled up from an efficacy trial (‘proof of concept’) in Jamaica, to a pilot in Colombia, to an at-scale program in Peru.

Recording: Regional Virtual CSO Training on ECD and Parenting Webinar Series

CSO Forum Secretariat together with AfECN, UNICEF and WHO, 29 Mar 2021

This series of webinars organized by the CSO Forum Secretariat together with AfECN, UNICEF and WHO sought to strengthen the capacity of CSOs in the area of ECD to ensure greater advocacy for young children in the child rights agenda.

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The principles of Nurturing Care promote human capital and mitigate adversities from preconception through adolescence

Maureen M Black, et al - BMJ Global Health, 27 Mar 2021

This paper proposes a comprehensive, multisectoral, multilevel life-course conceptualisation of human capital development by building on the Nurturing Care Framework (NCF), originally developed for the foundational period of growth and development through the age 3 years.

Preprint: Responsive caregiving, opportunities for early learning, and children’s safety and security during COVID-19: A rapid review

Kerrie Proulx, Rachel Lenzi-Weisbecker, Rachel Hatch, Kristy Hackett, Carina Omoeva, Vanessa Cavallera, Bernadette Daelmans, Tarun Dua - medRxiv, 16 Feb 2021

This rapid review takes stock of emerging research on nurturing care for young children during the COVID-19 crisis.

Supporting the First 1,000 Days of A Child’s Life: An Anti-Racist Blueprint for Early Childhood Well-Being and Child Welfare Prevention

Alexandra Citrin, Siri Anderson, Valery Martínez, Ngozi Lawal, and Shadi Houshyar - Center for the Study of Social Policy, 01 Feb 2021

This report offers a blueprint for creating equity-centered, anti-racist policies that support the health and well-being of children and families of color.