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Early Child Development
Early experiences have a lasting and far-reaching impact on health, development, and later life. During the early years, children’s experiences can either nurture health and resiliency, or make them vulnerable to poor health and development. If children are supported with positive environments and social experiences, their future will look bright. But if they experience chronic stressors such as poverty, maternal depression, abuse or neglect, their development and health may be disrupted or undermined.
Clinical guidance for health professionals
- From ACEs to early relational health: Implications for clinical practice: CPS position statement, 2023
- Relationships matter: How clinicians can support positive parenting in the early years: CPS position statement, 2019
- Community-based supports for parents: Provides a starting point for clinicians who want to connect families with local resources
- Rourke Baby Record: An evidence-based health supervision guide for physicians and health care providers caring for children in the first five years of life
- Read, Speak, Sing: Promoting literacy in the health care setting: CPS position statement, 2021
- Promoting literacy: A guide for clinicians
- Literacy resources for physicians: A list of national, provincial and territorial resources for physicians interested in promoting literacy in their practices and communities.
Education for health professionals
- Early relational health care: What is known and what is new for family physicians: Commentary in Canadian Family Physician by Dr. Amanda Bell and Dr. Richa Agnihotri (May 2024)
- Beyond ACEs to Early Relational Health: Implications for clinical practice: Webinar featuring Dr. Jean Clinton and Dr. David Willis (April 2023)
- Promoting early relational health and child development in Canadian resident education and clinical practice moments: Webinar featuring Dr. Blair Hammond, co-founder of the Mount Sinai Parenting Center (February 2023)
- Early Literacy Promotion: The A-B-Cs for busy clinicians: A one-hour, self-directed CME
- Brain Story Certification Course: Free online course on the science of brain development. Developed by the Alberta Family Wellness Initiative and featuring leading experts in neurobiology and mental health. Course outline available.
- The Amazing Talents of the Newborn: Presented by Dr. Emmett Francoeur and Dr. Jean Clinton
Information for parents and caregivers
- Positive discipline for young children
- Attachment: A connection for life
- Your baby’s brain: How parents can support healthy development
- Read, speak, sing to your baby: How parents can support early literacy from birth
Advocacy
- Isolation, parental stress, and young children: The urgent need to improve social connectedness: Issue brief, June 2021
- COVID-19 and early childhood mental health: Fostering systems change and resilience: Policy brief from Mental Health Commission of Canada, 2021
- The impact of COVID-19 on early childhood mental health: Webinar from the Mental Health Commission of Canada and the CPS, October 2021
Partners
Last updated: Oct 20, 2025