The early child period is considered the most important developmental phase throughout the lifespan. The 95th Nestlé Nutrition Institute Workshop explored in some detail the current scientific research, challenges, and opportunities of cementing a healthy foundation for life in toddlers and young children. The workshop brought together experts in the areas of health care, public health, and developmental science. The first session focused on the nutritional challenges in toddlers and young children across the globe, such as overweight and obesity. The theme of the second session elucidated the journey from infancy to toddlerhood and the role of nutrition in it, focusing social aspects. And finally, the third session aimed to explain the steps of motor skill development and the role of physical activities and nutrition in cognitive development and learning abilities of a child. The key issues offer valuable insights for health care providers, policy makers, and researchers on how appropriate nutrition, nurturing caregiving, and environment can influence the development and health of children up to 5 years of age.

Decades of research have demonstrated that the parent-child dyad and the environment of the familyâ€"which includes all primary caregiversâ€"are at the foundation of children's well- being and healthy development. From birth, children are learning and rely on parents and the other caregivers in their lives to protect and care for them. The impact of parents may never be greater than during the earliest years of life, when a child's brain is rapidly developing and when nearly all of her or his experiences are created and shaped by parents and the family environment. Parents help children build and refine their knowledge and skills, charting a trajectory for their health and well-being during childhood and beyond. The experience of parenting also impacts parents themselves. For instance, parenting can enrich and give focus to parents' lives; generate stress or calm; and create any number of emotions, including feelings of happiness, sadness, fulfillment, and anger. Parenting of young children today takes place in the context of significant ongoing developments. These include: a rapidly growing body of science on early childhood, increases in funding for programs and services for families, changing demographics of the U.S. population, and greater diversity of family structure. Additionally, parenting is increasingly being shaped by technology and increased access to information about parenting. Parenting Matters identifies parenting knowledge, attitudes, and practices associated with positive developmental outcomes in children ages 0-8; universal/preventive and targeted strategies used in a variety of settings that have been effective with parents of young children and that support the identified knowledge, attitudes, and practices; and barriers to and facilitators for parents' use of practices that lead to healthy child outcomes as well as their participation in effective programs and services. This report makes recommendations directed at an array of stakeholders, for promoting the wide-scale adoption of effective programs and services for parents and on areas that warrant further research to inform policy and practice. It is meant to serve as a roadmap for the future of parenting policy, research, and practice in the United States.

Positive psychology—the study and promotion of character strengths, positive emotion, optimism, and resilience—has gained considerable momentum and support over the last 20 years. More recently, neuropsychology has begun to embrace related perspectives. In the first edition of Positive Neuropsychology, an extensive collection of perspectives from national leaders in neuropsychology clarified the importance of promoting cognitive health through various means. The present edition expands on the first edition, with four new chapters and updates of all previous chapters. Topics include the importance of physical, social, and intellectual engagement across the lifespan; nutrition and brain health; novel technologies used to maintain brain health and functional independence; compensating for and preventing cognitive limitations; and strategies to promote brain health in clinical and other settings. Chapters reveal not only the benefits of understanding cognitive health and optimal outcomes across the lifespan, but also emerging avenues for practitioners to expand their work into non-traditional settings. Bringing new dimensions to the neuroscience, wellness, and positive psychology literatures, Positive Neuropsychology will interest a wide range of academics and clinicians, including neuropsychologists, clinical and health psychologists, geriatricians, primary care physicians, cognitive neuroscientists, and other healthcare professionals.

Early and adequate nutritional support is critical to achieve appropriate rates of weight gain, which are almost twice that of a term infant. The 96th Nestlé Nutrition Institute Workshop was focused on the latest scientific knowledge in the area of neonatal care in preterm and low-birth-weight infants, including human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs) and their potential impact on the health of neonates. This 3-session workshop facilitated interactions between international experts. The first session, chaired by Prof. Nick Embleton, looked at optimizing feeding, nutrition, and growth in the neonatal intensive care unit and after discharge. Prof. Ferdinand Haschke chaired the second session, which looked at the personalized nutrition of preterm infants. The third session, chaired by Lars Bode, looked at the role of HMOs and the microbiome in the health of term and very-low-birth-weight infants. The key issues provided by this 3-day workshop offer valuable insights for healthcare providers, policy makers, and researchers on the crucial role of proper nutrition for adequate growth and consequent development of preterm infants.

Children are the foundation of the United States, and supporting them is a key component of building a successful future. However, millions of children face health inequities that compromise their development, well-being, and long-term outcomes, despite substantial scientific evidence about how those adversities contribute to poor health. Advancements in neurobiological and socio-behavioral science show that critical biological systems develop in the prenatal through early childhood periods, and neurobiological development is extremely responsive to environmental influences during these stages. Consequently, social, economic, cultural, and environmental factors significantly affect a child's health ecosystem and ability to thrive throughout adulthood. Vibrant and Healthy Kids: Aligning Science, Practice, and Policy to Advance Health Equity builds upon and updates research from Communities in Action: Pathways to Health Equity (2017) and From Neurons to Neighborhoods: The Science of Early Childhood Development (2000). This report provides a brief overview of stressors that affect childhood development and health, a framework for applying current brain and development science to the real world, a roadmap for implementing tailored interventions, and recommendations about improving systems to better align with our understanding of the significant impact of health equity.

Adolescenceâ€"beginning with the onset of puberty and ending in the mid-20sâ€"is a critical period of development during which key areas of the brain mature and develop. These changes in brain structure, function, and connectivity mark adolescence as a period of opportunity to discover new vistas, to form relationships with peers and adults, and to explore one's developing identity. It is also a period of resilience that can ameliorate childhood setbacks and set the stage for a thriving trajectory over the life course. Because adolescents comprise nearly one-fourth of the entire U.S. population, the nation needs policies and practices that will better leverage these developmental opportunities to harness the promise of adolescenceâ€"rather than focusing myopically on containing its risks. This report examines the neurobiological and socio-behavioral science of adolescent development and outlines how this knowledge can be applied, both to promote adolescent well-being, resilience, and development, and to rectify structural barriers and inequalities in opportunity, enabling all adolescents to flourish.

This essential text unpacks major transformations in the study of learning and human development and provides evidence for how science can inform innovation in the design of settings, policies, practice, and research to enhance the life path, opportunity and prosperity of every child. The ideas presented provide researchers and educators with a rationale for focusing on the specific pathways and developmental patterns that may lead a specific child, with a specific family, school, and community, to prosper in school and in life. Expanding key published articles and expert commentary, the book explores a profound evolution in thinking that integrates findings from psychology with biology through sociology, education, law, and history with an emphasis on institutionalized inequities and disparate outcomes and how to address them. It points toward possible solutions through an understanding of and addressing the dynamic relations between a child and the contexts within which he or she lives, offering all researchers of human development and education a new way to understand and promote healthy development and learning for diverse, specific youth regardless of race, socioeconomic status, or history of adversity, challenge, or trauma. The book brings together scholars and practitioners from the biological/medical sciences, the social and behavioral sciences, educational science, and fields of law and social and educational policy. It provides an invaluable and unique resource for understanding the bases and status of the new science, and presents a roadmap for progress that will frame progress for at least the next decade and perhaps beyond.