Early days, but we’ve found a way to lift the IQ and resilience of Australia’s most vulnerable children

Abstract

What happens in our first three years profoundly influences the rest of our lives. Children who encounter extreme adversity in those early years – including prolonged exposure to physical or sexual abuse and living in a highly stressful family environment – are likely to suffer major impairments to their development that can lead to lower educational achievement and workforce participation, involvement in risky behaviours including criminal activity, and lifelong health problems. These things are expensive, both to society and to governments. It has long been established overseas through trials of programs implemented in the United States in the 1960s that targeted interventions that dire..