Credit: Laureus Sport for Good Foundation South Africa
The Lancet has launched a landmark series on the importance of 'the next 1,000 days'. Building on the foundation of the first 1,000 days of life (conception until two years old), the next 1,000 days (from age two to aged five) is a crucial window of opportunity to provide overall health, nutrition, security and safety, responsive care-giving and learning (called nurturing care) at an early age for children.
The 'next 1,000 days' is a crucial time in the development of a child into adolescence and adulthood – it's when they rapidly develop motor skills, become independent in their movement and physical exploration, and they rapidly expand their cognitive, language and social-emotional skills.
A global effort, the lead Australian author for the study is Professor Jane Fisher, Professor of Global Health at Monash University, together with Professor Kate Milner, from the Murdoch Children's Research Institute, and Professor Anthony Okely from the University of Wollongong.
Professor Fisher and colleagues have previously identified the importance of culturally-relevant stimulating activities and safe play spaces to foster fine and gross motor skills, movement behaviours, cognitive, language and social-emotional skills, and physical play in this period.
Yet – in low-income and middle-income countries, 181.9 million children (almost three quarters of all children aged three or four years old) currently do not have access to adequate nurturing care, putting their healthy development at risk.
Fewer than one in three children aged three or four years attend early childhood care and education programs in low- to middle-income countries, despite evidence they improve children's development.
According to Professor Fisher, approximately 80 per cent of interventions to promote healthy development are taking place in early childhood education settings, "which offers these children a platform to integrate annual screenings and growth monitoring, food assistance and nutrition supplements, and caregiver supports, including parenting education," she said.
The Lancet series reveals that providing one year of early education for all children would cost on average less than 0.15 per cent of lower- and middle-income countries' current gross domestic product. The potential benefits of providing these programs are on average eight to 19 times larger than the cost of implementing them.
The Series authors recommend policymakers increase investment in the next 1,000 days or years 2-5 – especially in LMICs – with a particular focus on increasing access to high quality early childhood education, which should include adequately paid and trained teachers, reasonable teacher-student ratios, child-centred play, evidence-based curricula, and warm, stimulating and responsive classroom interactions and parenting education.
The Lancet has previously published series on early childhood development in 2007, 2011 and 2017. Until now, the focus has been on the first 1,000 days (conception to two years of age).
"There is increasing evidence that a nurturing environment for children in the 'next 1000 days' – particularly for people living in lower socioeconomic situations – is not only advantageous to a child's growth into adulthood but also extremely cost effective for governments," Professor Fisher said.
Read the full paper in: The Lancet Series on Early Childhood Development and the Next 1,000 Days DOI: Paper 1: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(24)01389-8/fulltext
Paper 2: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(24)01390-4/fulltext
