“If we can create a society which sees the child within every adult – and the adult within every child - we will finally start to change it for the better."

We want to make the link between the skills we develop in early childhood and the core foundations that set us up for life and help us to thrive as adults. To help give social and emotional skills the greater priority they deserve, The Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood has conducted a first-of-its-kind global listening exercise, involving experts from 21 countries around the world, to catalogue and identify the skills in this area that matter most throughout our lives.

The Centre for Early Childhood has undertaken work to find a common bridge and set of core skills that can apply equally to children and adults, so we can bring people together with a common language and vision to drive action at every level – protecting and strengthening these skills for current and future generations across the whole of society.

Through this exercise we found consensus around a set of skills that we develop and nurture during early childhood, but that continue to be enhanced and refined as we grow into adults. They relate to knowing ourselves, managing our emotions, focusing our thoughts, communicating with others, nurturing our relationships, and exploring the world. These are the skills that lay the foundations for our positive future mental health and resilience throughout our lives.

Healthy development of these core skills is not inevitable – they must be nurtured from our earliest moments of life. The foundations for these skills are laid in early childhood, between pregnancy and the age of five, which is why those earliest years represent such a golden opportunity to make a difference right from the start. But our social and emotional growth continues throughout our lifetime, and change is always possible.

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Mental health:    • Mental Health  
Early Years:    • The Early Years  
The Earthshot Prize:    • The Earthshot Prize  

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