Rethinking Early Childhood

The Rethinking Early Childhood Public Policy Workshop takes as its starting point a growing body of evidence that early childhood experiences shape life trajectories more decisively than any other factor.

While political attention has long centered on formal education, research shows that a significant share of a person's future is determined by the care, stimulation, and environment they receive in their first years of life. Many children are effectively left behind before they even reach toddlerhood. The workshop's goal is to produce concrete public policy proposals that promote equitable opportunities for all children from the start.

The workshop brings together experts from psychology, education, neuroscience, economics, and law, alongside national and international policymakers.

13:30 - Welcome

13:40 - Block 1 — The Developing Child: Brain, Body, and Early Experience

Keynote: TBC

Short talks:

• Early childhood in Portugal: evidence from a 2010 cohort* (Henrique Barros*)
• The Brazilian 2023 cohort (Naercio Menezes-Filho)
• The perinatal period (Mariana Cerqueira Aokalani)
• Air quality and respiratory diseases in infants (Pedro Carreiro-Martins)
• Impact of early nutrition on child health (Júlio César Rocha)
• A child psychiatrist's perspective (Pedro Caldeira da Silva)

15:30 - Block 2 — Language, Learning, and the Early Years

Keynote: Lessons and Cautions from Early Language Development — Elika Bergelson

Short talks:

• Understanding early language development (Sónia Frota)
• Born to verbal communication (Inês Sim-Sim)
• Arting with infants, toddlers, and stuff (Marta Cabral)
• Designing ECEC systems (Assunção Folque)
• Teaching parents-to-be (Maria do Céu Machado)
• What teacher–child interactions matter most? (Joana Cadima)

17:15 - Block 3 — Systems, Rights, and Policy for Early Childhood

Keynote: Early Childhood Interventions: An Economist's Perspective* — Pedro Carneiro

Short talks:

• Beliefs and maternal investments in children (Adeline Delavande)
• Children's rights (Odete Severino Soares)
• Access to high-quality early education as a right (Cecília Aguiar & Isabel Lopes da Silva)
• Children don't develop in silos — but our systems do (Isabel Soares)
• The child is father of the man — but orphan of public policy (Gonçalo Cordeiro Ferreira)
• Foster care (Joana Baptista)

*Title/speaker to be confirmed

18:30 - End