What We Do
Why early childhood?
Early childhood is the period of greatest brain, biological, and psychological development; one million new neural connections are formed every second in the earliest years. Domains of development are highly integrated. So, what happens in the early years affects lifelong health, learning, and behavior.
Why now?
Systemic and structural inequalities based on race, ethnicity, income, and other demographics are the root causes of disparities in health and well-being, learning, and achievement. These disparities emerge very early in life, increase over the course of development, and have been widening in recent years. Now is the time to advance work that seeks to close these gaps for current and future generations of families with young children.
Our approach
Stanford Center on Early Childhood takes a developmental and interdisciplinary perspective on early childhood. We believe that health is linked to learning, that children learn everywhere, and that measurement as a tool can help inform and accelerate the science of early childhood learning.
We refer to our operating model as the IDEA cycle: Identify, Design, Evaluate, Accelerate. The IDEA cycle provides a framework for identifying critical issues in early childhood, designing a proposed solution, evaluating its effectiveness (what works for whom), and accelerating its impact. Importantly, the IDEA cycle is iterative in nature, encouraging continuous improvement and ongoing development.
RAPID survey project
Created in response to the pandemic, the RAPID survey provides actionable data on early childhood and family well-being to inform immediate and long-term program and policy decisions.
Principal Investigator: Philip Fisher
Early Childhood Educational Experiences
The Early Childhood Educational Experiences project examines how different aspects of the pre-K classroom experience uniquely relate to children’s school readiness and academic achievement. Research partner: San Francisco Unified School District Early Education Department
Principal Investigator: Jelena Obradović
Promoting Math in Young Children: Leveraging pediatric clinics to reach underrepresented children in rural communities
Through partnerships with educational researchers, early math educators, pediatric health experts, and pediatric clinics, this project will develop and study a new opportunity for informal math learning in critical early years in rural locations where the early childhood education system is under-resourced. The project will work with pediatric clinics that serve rural immigrant families who are racially, culturally, and linguistically diverse, working closely with early education math experts, key advisors, and caregivers to ensure the text messaging program is tailored to meet the cultural, linguistic, and contextual needs of rural caregivers and children.
Principal Investigator: Lisa Chamberlain, MD, MPH
Evaluation of a Preschool Social-Emotional Curriculum
Using a two-year randomized control trial with a waitlist control group and a mixed-methods approach, this study investigates whether and how a preschool social-emotional curriculum affects student outcomes, observed classroom quality, and teacher mindsets in a large, diverse school district. Research partner: San Francisco Unified School District
Principal Investigator: Jelena Obradović
The SEAL study
The SEAL study is a federally-funded, randomized control trial that recruits families eligible for Head Start services and aims to (1) quantify effects of Filming Interactions to Nurture Development (FIND) training on intervention targets; (2) use fMRI to identify process-level neural mechanisms underlying FIND intervention effects; and (3) determine moderations of intervention impact.
Principal Investigator: Philip Fisher
Co-Investigators: Shannon Peake, Elliot Berkman, Nicole Giuliani, University of Oregon
School Transition and Readiness (STAR) project
The School Transition and Readiness project in rural Pakistan studies how an early parenting intervention, family processes, and antecedent development relate to emergent executive functions and related school readiness in disadvantaged preschoolers. The goal of the project is to further the understanding of early childhood development in low- and middle-income countries, where children face high levels of adversity, including infections, malnutrition, and inadequate stimulation.
Principal Investigators: Jelena Obradović, Aisha Yousafzai (Harvard University)
Our tools
The FIND program
The Filming Interactions to Nurture Development (FIND) program is a highly effective video coaching program for parents and caregivers of children birth to age 5 that facilitates responsive, supportive caregiving. Developed by Philip Fisher.
FIND Professional Development (FIND-PD) is for early childhood educators who want to enhance their positive interactions with children.
Sign up for FIND Professional Development (FIND-PD)
Impact Evaluation
The Impact Evaluation Team provides technical assistance and consultation to external partners (e.g., community-based organizations, governmental agencies, and philanthropic funders across the early childhood sector) around theories of impact and rapid-cycle evaluation. This approach was developed by Philip Fisher.