Children's Health and Education

Abstract

Young children's health and education can be facilitated by systematic supports that span traditional and innovative health care, health promotion, and disease prevention and apply scientific principles about how children learn and develop. Conversely, children's intellectual and social development can be impaired by disease and injury, nonoptimal lifestyle, and the failure to receive high-quality experiences to promote cognitive, social-emotional, and physical well-being. Advances in developmental neuroscience and prevention science have fueled research about the fundamental interconnectedness of children's health and education. Many of the health disparities and inequities in children's educational attainment are likely the result of this complex interplay between health and education. An integrative conceptual framework for studying health and education processes and outcomes – applied biosocial contextual development (ABCD)—is presented, then used to illustrate its applicability for studying interventions for at-risk young children and their families. Results of many randomized controlled trials during the first 8 years of life are summarized in terms of fundamental principles of effective early educational interventions, namely, the principles of dosage, timing, direct receipt of services, differential benefits, and continuity of supports. Participatory community collaborative research affords great potential to apply ABCD and test the efficacy of multicomponent interventions. Keywords: applied biosocial contextual development; child health; education; Head Start; research-based intervention