Nature, Nurture, and Neurodevelopment

From the birth, children grow and learn in response to the stimulation from their social and physical environment. Research on early brain development provides a great opportunity to examine how nature and nurture work together to shape human development. Through the use of sophisticated technology, scientists have discovered how early brain development and nurturing care interact to create a foundation for future growth and learning. New evidence supports the effect of nature-nurture interactions on childhood development primarily through advances in longitudinal studies. Neural processes, influenced by genetic and epigenetic variation, and other underlying factors including environment, infection, inflammation, hormonal and immune functions, etc., have critical roles in brain development. The term "nurturing care" was described as a core component for achieving optimal development in the early years of life, when the brain is developing and the child is more responsive to interventions. Recent evidence has revealed that parenting interventions that include components to enhance child learning or strengthen parent-child relationships are effective for improving early cognitive, language, motor, and socioemotional development. This book aims: (1) to describe various domains of neurodevelopment in children; (2) to report the estimates of children at risk of not achieving their developmental potential; (3) to present a life course conceptual framework of early childhood development; (4) to review new aspects of neurodevelopment in children; eg., neurobiology, neuroimmunology; (5) to describe the risk factors affecting early brain development; (6) to report the neurodevelopment screening tools in children; (7) to assess the role of nurturing care in early brain development; and (8) to describe programs and policies implemented for early childhood development and their effectiveness for improving development in childhood.