The Child Development Center of FMUSP was created based on a new vision that comprises the advancement of knowledge about the growth and development of the individual and the social changes of the last decades, which challenge professionals in addressing complex situations in health care of children.

Kids need to grow and progress in a healthy way in their life environment, expanding the prospects for the future and overcoming the challenges of conditions that threaten their full development. In this sense, the best results both from an individual, social and economic point of view have been obtained through strategies that take into account the knowledge of neuroscience.

Studies show that early experiences are critical, as they can affect children's healthy development. The second point raised are the windows of opportunities for promoting healthy growth and development. And the third issue is the importance of preventing the long-term consequences of childhood adversity, which can be achieved with protective measures in this period.

The Child Development Center (CEDI) aims to study the interactions between environment and individuals in the growth and development phase, and to understand the role of adverse factors. Based on this knowledge, CEDI can evaluate and propose interventions to promote and protect children, which contribute to the creation of public programs and policies.

CEDI is structured from an interdisciplinary, interdepartmental and interunit perspective, covering complementary areas of knowledge that converge for the development of the child.

The Center comprises research projects in the areas of environment-development interaction and interventions for child development, raising funds from development agencies to carry out these activities (photo 1). In the field of education, similar to international centers, CEDI has assistance activities, which are a training ground for development specialists, in addition to the insertion of undergraduate, residency, master's and doctoral students in ongoing projects and programs. (photo 2) As a human resources training center, in addition to in-service training and participation in research projects, offered to undergraduate and graduate students, training and training projects are provided for professionals in the areas of health and education (photo 3). In the field of knowledge transfer to society, the CEDI team has been working in partnership with several Brazilian municipalities, to implement and evaluate public programs and policies for child development.