Lab director Jorge Cuartas published two articles in The Lancet, one of the world’s leading medical journals, as part of a series of papers about the “next 1,000 days” (ages 2-5 years). These articles build on previous Lancet series in 2007, 2011 and 2016 on early childhood development. 

The series show that the 2–5 years of age range provide a unique window of opportunity to promote nurturing and caring environments and build on early gains to sustain or improve trajectories of healthy development. 

Despite the importance of this developmental period, only 62 million children aged 3 and 4 years (25·4%) currently receive adequate nurturing care, leaving 181·9 million children exposed to risks that threaten their healthy development.

The series also shows that failing to invest in early childhood care & education could during these critical cost 8–19x more than implementing it.

Make sure to read Paper 1 and Paper 2 from the Lancet Series on the next 1,000 days!