A child’s first 1,000 days
Type de matériel :
48
How can we build a consensus around a scientific concept that will enable us to launch a new policy? The “first 1,000 days” of a child’s life is an issue that, since the submission of the report of the same name, has been the subject of increased interest: an issue which is both everyday and personal, but also universal and societal. Scientific knowledge confirms that this period is particularly important for a child’s development and security. It is the foundation of a person’s lifelong health and well-being. However, hypothesizing biological, developmental, or social determinism would be a simplistic approach: for this period is indeed “where it all begins,” as the report on the first 1,000 days indicates. These first 1,000 days, from the fourth month of pregnancy to the child’s third birthday, challenge public authorities to develop a new public policy, based on early prevention (given how difficult it is to start any earlier) and the fight against social and health inequalities, whether already present at the start of this period and/or emerging during it. Rather than a project with a definite end in sight, we have opened up a genuine long-term “construction site” to pave the way for a new long-term approach, a human investment in the fullest sense of the term. Barely 1,000 days after the submission of the report, a number of actions have been initiated. Increasing numbers of researchers and professionals, decision-makers, and practitioners are getting involved, combining their views, reflections, and interventions, underlining the richness and potential of this approach. The challenge remains to maintain the innovative, open-ended approach that characterizes it, at a time when the context seems ever less conducive to taking into account the complexity inherent in this period of a child’s first 1,000 days.
Réseaux sociaux