Giving kids the best start

To feel loved and taken care of, to be influenced and guided and to feel encouraged and inspired – these are the foundations that enable children to grow, to feel happy and to thrive.

These foundations of development are good for children and their families. They are also good for our neighbourhoods, our communities and for our nation.

Happy, productive and thriving children will grow up to do the jobs, produce the innovations, generate the creativity and pay the taxes we all need. They will make the choices, create the families and form the communities that are fundamental to our national good and future prosperity.  

And it is early childhood that is the most important part of this journey. It’s the time of the most important, dramatic and influential changes, when young children develop the critical social, emotional and behavioural skills that can power them through life.

It’s also the time when, shackled by disadvantage and exclusion, significant differences emerge between children –differences that, when they become engrained, limit and hold our children back.

These foundations of children’s development and their futures are especially important at the present time because there is substantial and irrefutable evidence that children in the UK are some of the unhappiest and troubled across Europe. About one in eight children suffers diagnosable mental health conditions,  with at least a further one in four suffering substantial problems of the same type that significantly affect their lives and futures. These proportions double in areas of disadvantage and exclusion.

Think what that means for the children and their families, for how things are in the average classroom anywhere in the country and particularly in families, in classrooms and in communities that are struggling.

Despite the challenges, there is some good news. We already have a few fundamental tools that are extremely effective at helping families give their children, no matter what their circumstances, the best start in life. 

Time and time again, in clinical trials and in real life, parenting programmes have been shown to fundamentally help families improve their children’s mental health and build the foundations of their wellbeing and development. They are most effective when families get to use them when their kids are very young.  

Mini Wonders is an early-years research and development programme, led by the Art Fund and innovation agency Nesta, that will explore how museums can support child and family development.

I have been advising on the programme, which is designed to be attractive and easy for families to use, drawing on best evidence and practice. The aim is to help hard-pressed families give their children the best start in life – a start that can power them into the future.

It has been a privilege to work alongside the team at Nesta, the Art Fund and participating museums and to see Mini Wonders grow and develop. I’ve been impressed by how it works carefully with parents and their little ones, building trust and drawing on a structured curriculum of interesting, enjoyable and effective creative activities that help parents.

Given the scale of the challenge we face, the development and testing of Mini Wonders can make a crucial contribution to families and their young children’s social and emotional development. It aims to reach across traditional boundaries, to combine the knowledge, creativity and expertise of our cultural institutions with those of mental health science and clinical practice.

In doing so, Mini Wonders is offering innovative support that will help families create the best present for their little ones, while also helping to build the foundations for their best futures.

Crispin Day is a consultant clinical child psychologist and the head of the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services Research Unit at King’s College London’s Department of Psychology