A school reading program originating in the 1960s, criticized for being “teacher proof” because it demands that classroom delivery sticks so closely to a formula, has emerged untarnished from a longitudinal study in Baltimore.

The developers of The Incredible Years Dinosaur curriculum make the case for more research to establish how programs for dealing with one set of developmental problems can be tailored to the needs of children suffering from several disorders at the same time – without compromising the core elements. 

The Obama administration’s Serve America Bill, which seeks to rejuvenate ideas about social responsibility and community service by extending the scope of the volunteer movement to education and environmental action, is raising the profile of mentoring. What might that have to do with a revival of interest in the UK in the value of residential care?

Two years ago national pride and confidence was dented by a UNICEF charge that the well-being of UK children had hit rock bottom among industrialized nations. Much heart-searching and head-scratching followed - but, so far, no discernible improvement.

Two cooperative learning strategies developed during the 1980s at the US Johns Hopkins University have been given a fresh lease of life by new schools trials in Turkey.

University of Kansas research adds detail to the gradually sharpening picture of what it takes to implement a worthwhile school-based program on a large scale.

Research from the University of Montreal has reopened and reinvigorated the controversial debate about whether genetics holds the key to understanding the flaws and frailties in human behavior.

A week in Japan brings the message home: the future of successful prevention science will not depend on knowing only how to bring effective programs to scale – understanding the contextual forces operating in everyday life East, West, North and South is just as vital.

The step-by-step introduction of the Triple P parenting program in Japan has lessons for researchers and preventionists contemplating transporting other proven programs to new cultural contexts.

In its experiments with cognitive behavioral therapy, Japan is taking on board the ideas of the charismatic - and iconoclastic - New York psychoanalyst turned psychologist Albert Ellis.

Concerns about levels of anxiety and depression among the Japanese school population have led to heightened research interest in the preventative value of cognitive behavioral therapies.

Starting a week of reports from Japan, where Prevention Action Executive Editor Michael Little will be meeting child development and prevention experts to find out about conditions and potential connections in a country performing well against UNICEF measures and where prevention scientists and activists are playing an increasingly important role.

It was the big idea when Shakespeare was writing The Tempest and it’s the big idea behind much contemporary child development research – but the complexity of the relationship between nature and nurture continues to defeat the most brilliant one-track minds.

Denver conference delegates are let in on “the biggest secret in child development research”: take any group of children and you’ll find that the ones who are never hit by their parents are the most well-adjusted.

In the eighth decade of a career of huge significance in the evolution of the science of child development and its role in US social policy making, the holder of the “Children’s Nobel Prize” is preparing to publish his saddest book. “We have no childcare system here” says Edward Zigler. “It's just a hodgepodge – poor to mediocre at best…”

Reading… ‘riting… ‘rithmetic; respect, reasoning, resolution - the sound of the letter r is reverberating through the transatlantic school curriculum debate.

Arthur Reynolds describes how cost benefit analysis can be a powerful tool for distinguishing between the characteristics, as well as the comparative cash value, of early child development programs... But he says the tools remain relatively crude and only a few familiar programs have the long-term performance data analysts most need.

This year's Society for Research in Child Development conference in Denver veers towards prevention science questions by bringing into sharper focus services and interventions for children and their families, evaluations and new methods for taking programs to scale.

The Zen teacher Suzuki Roshi said that the only effective mind is a “beginners mind” — one that is always open to revision, one that is not too attached to its current view. It takes real discipline to keep our minds open in this way. This year’s Bennett Lecture provided us with an especially powerful demonstration of how rewarding such discipline can be.

“Longitudinal data is compelling stuff. It gives you leverage over policy makers to do the right thing…" The founder of the think-tank charity Longview, John Bynner, explains why the UK should continue to be a world leader in long-haul research.