ABSTRACT
This chapter examines how interpretations of neuroscientific ideas in early childhood have been used by international organizations to promote a particular view of international development. Like other misinterpretations of neuroscience discussed in this book, it has resulted in an instrumental approach which simplifies the complex business of bringing up children, and limits the understanding of childhood, in a complex, unequal and tension filled world. The idea of early intervention, that is, stimulation programmes for infants to “develop their brains”, has been adopted and powerfully pushed by worldwide international organizations concerned about children and their future – UNICEF, WHO, the World Bank and many others. Early intervention, it has been argued, is an important route to combating global poverty. Global poverty is shocking; so for that matter is all chronic poverty and inequality. But why should early intervention be any kind of panacea? What has led the international ECD/ECEC community to champion its cause?
