"In a recent New York Times Opinionator column, James Heckman, a Nobel Laureate and a leading economist at the University of Chicago, called for investments in early childhood development as a way to reduce inequality and promote shared prosperity. Quality early childhood programs for disadvantaged children, he notes, more than pay for themselves in better education, health and economic outcomes.
"The evidence base for this assertion is strong, and growing. Heckman was, in fact, one of the first economists to formally model the importance of early childhood (defined as in utero through age five)....
"There are many names for this line of research: fetal origins, Barker hypothesis, thrifty phenotype, early influences and Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACES)). But whatever you call it, the literature suggests that the body, and the brain in particular, is more malleable in this early period than later childhood or adulthood. Thus, negative events in childhood (e.g., disease, poverty, natural disasters, pollution exposure, famines, witnessing violence or substance use, wars or political instability) are more harmful than comparable events experienced later in life. Parents play a particularly important role in these models, and in mitigating the long-term effects of these early adverse advents...."
http://www.scattergoodfoundation.org/activity/general/importance-childhood
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