The role of early interventions in improving the lives of children

If we want to help children succeed and thrive so that they can reach their full potential, we need to understand their mental, biological, and emotional needs.

Join Sean Sanders, Director and Senior Editor for Custom Publishing at Science, as he interviews outstanding researchers in a broad range of fields whose work either directly involves the study of children and adolescents or has a significant impact in their lives. Each interviewee is also the recipient of the Klaus J. Jacobs Research Prize, awarded by the Jacobs Foundation, that recognizes exceptional achievements in the field of child and youth development.

Episode 8: The role of early interventions in improving the lives of children

How has the study of early interventions led to an increased understanding of the importance of parental investment in child development? Can early childhood interventions have long-lasting effects on the lives of children? Could more reliable and comparable measures of child development improve interventions?

Listen in as Sean finds out the answers to these questions and more with today’s guest, Orazio Attanasio.

Orazio Attanasio is the Cowles Professor of Economics at Yale University. His research interests include early years interventions, as well as household consumption, saving, and labour supply behaviour, risk sharing, and human capital accumulation in developing countries. He has carried out evaluations of education financing and access programmes, including large conditional cash transfers programmes, the impact of scholarships on school enrolment, and the effect of subjective expectations on the returns to education.