Isabelle Filliozat powerfully connected climate, health, and education, emphasising that the climate crisis is not isolated. She positioned early childhood, relational security, and the development of emotional and executive skills as the true infrastructure of ecological transition. Without this solid inner foundation, the adults that children become may intellectually understand climate issues, yet still lack the inner resources needed to act accordingly. As she pointed out, what is the point of spending millions to motivate people to change their behavior if something within them resists?

Her central message was the urgent need to ensure a strong neurobiological and relational foundation that supports emotional regulation, empathy, social responsibility, respect for nature, attention, and decision-making. Human development must be the focus. A baby develops in constant interaction with the surrounding world, and what is experienced during the first 1000 days impacts health, emotional balance, and cognitive life. Conditions such as cancer, obesity, diabetes, hyperactivity, and hypersensitivity may find their origins in risk factors in this early period. She invited the audience to reflect on this precious developmental window — when brain architecture and the foundations of sensory and motor skills are being built — as a unique opportunity to give every child the best possible start in life.

She stressed that interaction with caregivers literally builds the architecture of the brain, while every movement, gesture, and game also shapes the child’s body. In order to learn, children must first be able to inhabit their bodies. What children eat, how they move, breathe, and sleep shapes who they become. Therefore, symptoms can no longer be viewed in isolation. Today, she noted, each specialist tends to see the child through the narrow lens of their field, while very few professionals connect a child’s anxiety to factors such as gut flora imbalance or poor eye convergence. Yet everything is connected, and simply treating symptoms without seeing the whole picture may actually worsen the problem.

Filliozat emphasized that the key concept for understanding health and behavior is adaptation. Stress, she explained, is the body’s effort to adapt to any demand. If we understand diseases, disorders and behaviors as adaptive responses, we can ask a deeper question: what is happening in the child’s environment? Chronic stress, especially in the absence of relational support, becomes toxic.

She addressed non-communicable diseases (NCDs) as multifactorial, but underlined that childhood trauma stands out as a major risk factor: the higher the trauma score, the greater the risk of chronic disease, mental illness, addiction and reduced life expectancy. She shared striking data—three out of four people have experienced at least one traumatic event in childhood, and one in eight has experienced more than four. She also described dissociation as an adaptive but self-reinforcing phenomenon, where repeated protective responses progressively disconnect individuals from themselves.

Importantly, she highlighted that teaching psychosocial skills and emotional awareness shows the strongest evidence for reducing the impact of trauma. For this reason, these must be fully integrated into educational programs. She also reminded that executive functions and emotional regulation depend on a functional, breathing body.

Isabelle Filliozat concluded with a message that brought together the entire spirit of the conference: by taking care of our children, we take care of the world. Early human development, she affirmed, is not only a health issue—it is the foundation of social resilience and ecological responsibility.

Ursula Stenger addressed the growing global concern that more and more children are affected by mental and physical health problems. Many children today live under conditions of poverty, neglect, violence, wars, malnutrition or obesity, while also increasingly suffering from emotional and behavioral disorders, partly associated with excessive screen time. In parallel, the social-ecological crisis is placing a growing burden on children’s physical and psychological wellbeing, causing stress and climate anxiety, which intensifies during youth and is often accompanied by hopelessness about a shared, livable future.

She also highlighted that teachers worldwide are increasingly affected by stress, anxiety, burnout, depression, and exhaustion, caused not only by structural problems in education systems but also by the emotional demands of managing overlapping global crises. Despite these challenges, she noted an important insight: six-year-old children already understand the connection between their own health and the health of the Earth.

This observation led her to a fundamental question: Is early education truly focused on the possible futures that await children? She asked what kinds of fundamental experiences and everyday practices—both physical and mental—are most helpful for children, families, and educators as they cope with crises and develop health, wellbeing, hope, compassion, and resilience, enabling them to live well with one another and with the planet.

Dr. Stenger emphasised that preventive mental and physical healthcare must become an integral part of daily life, especially in times of crisis. She pointed out that the positive connection between sports activity and mental health is well established, and that mindfulness- and yoga-based social learning interventions show clear effects even for preschool children. At the same time, different mindfulness approaches produce different training effects on subjective experience, behavior, brain, and body, which means that we must consciously choose the type of intervention we apply. Her conclusion was clear: a diversity of health practices in early childhood is required.

She then addressed the key forward-looking question: What do children need to stay healthy in the future they will face?

She outlined four essential pillars:

1. Vital, loving relationships for resilience
2. Confidence in the future through ethical orientation and responsibility, where children learn to reflect on what truly matters in life—for example, choosing whether to buy food for birds in winter or new toys, and questioning which values guide such decisions
3. Knowledge and critical thinking for shared worlds
4. Transformative practice and community-building for shared, healthy worlds, illustrated through concrete experiences with nature, such as children observing birds, listening to them, caring for them, understanding the links between agriculture, food, birds, and insects, and enjoying bird-friendly and insect-friendly food

Her central conclusion was that creating healthy environments is essential for strengthening resilience—both for individuals and for communities. She emphasized that regular exercise, health education, and the integration of health practices into everyday life lead to healthier habits and long-term interests.

Finally, she outlined how this transformation can be promoted in practice:

• Through professionalization, governance, management, and a strong focus on physical, mental, and planetary health
• Through ensuring healthy environments, healthy foo,d and healthy daily habits
• And through strong partnerships with parents, local communitie,s and broader social networks

Ursula Stenger’s contribution highlighted that early childhood education is not only about learning—it is a cornerstone of collective resilience, ethical development and planetary health.

Elin Eriksen Ødegaard underscored that movement, play, and exploration are not “extras” in early childhood education — they are the core architecture through which children develop embodied resilience. In a time of overlapping environmental, social, and economic crises, she argued, early childhood systems carry a unique responsibility: to help children build the bodily, emotional, and cognitive strength they will need to navigate an unpredictable future.

She highlighted that daily experiences — balance, coordinated movement, breathing, posture regulation, self-care routines, and playful exploration — function as foundations for public health. These are not peripheral activities but essential conditions for developing strong executive functions, emotional stability and social connectedness.

Linking her message to the WHO Global Oral Health Action Plan and the Bangkok Declaration, Ødegaard emphasized that national preschool policies should embed these practices intentionally and consistently. When early learning environments cultivate embodied, relational and sensory-rich experiences, they create the conditions in which children grow healthier, more resilient and more capable of contributing to sustainable futures.

Her central message: the preschool environment itself can become a form of public health infrastructure — shaping children’s wellbeing and the wellbeing of the communities and ecosystems they will one day sustain.

Adele Diamond highlighted why early attention to executive functions is essential not only for individual health across the lifespan but also for the wellbeing of the planet. She began by describing a bidirectional relationship: the stronger a person’s executive functions, the better equipped they are to engage with complex challenges — including those created by climate change. At the same time, the environmental conditions we create for children directly influence how these cognitive capacities develop. In her view, the wellbeing of our bodies and the wellbeing of our planet are inseparable.

Diamond described executive functions as a family of mental processes that we rely on whenever “going on automatic” or depending solely on intuition is not sufficient. These include inhibitory control, working memory, and cognitive flexibility — skills that shape everything from learning and emotional regulation to decision-making and social relationships. She argued that these abilities are critical for all aspects of life and, in many ways, more consequential than IQ. In this sense, executive functions serve as a mental toolkit for success, foundational for navigating an increasingly complex world.

She also discussed the slow maturation of the prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain where these functions are rooted, and emphasized that motor and cognitive development are deeply intertwined. Movement, exploration, and physical engagement all contribute to building the neural architecture that supports executive functioning.

A central theme in her talk was the powerful role of early relationships. The presence of an attachment figure provides what she called a kind of “neuro-scaffold”—a stabilizing blueprint that shapes long-term patterns of brain connectivity. Secure attachment, she noted, stands at the foundation of everything else, while stress early in life can hinder the development of the prefrontal cortex and weaken executive functions.

Adele reminded the audience that these skills are not fixed; they must be continuously challenged in order to grow. Ultimately, she argued that the seeds of wise, caring, and healthy adults are planted in the first years of life—years during which the environment, both physical and emotional, has an outsized influence on how young minds develop.

Joel Monzée invited the audience to reconsider how modern societies understand and respond to childhood mental health. He argued that psychiatry has become too narrowly framed around the effects of pharmacological molecules on behavior, while the broader developmental context often receives far less attention. Many countries are now facing an alarming rise in the prescription of psychotropic medication, especially among primary school children and university students. In Quebec alone, about a quarter of young adults use these medications—a trend he believes signals deeper systemic issues.

Joel emphasized that children’s psychological wellbeing cannot be separated from the conditions in which they grow up. Family interactions, community and educational support, socioeconomic pressures, and even environmental and climate conditions all shape a brain that is still maturing through a long and sensitive process.

A recurring theme was the critical role of emotional security. He reminded the audience that a child’s capacity to learn depends heavily on feeling safe: a young brain may create hundreds of millions of new synapses each day when supported by a sense of security. Stress itself is not necessarily harmful; it becomes so when the surrounding context overwhelms a child’s coping abilities.

He called for a shift in educational practices, encouraging systems to move away from punitive and harmful disciplinary methods and toward environments that reduce adverse childhood experiences. Supportive, attentive adults are indispensable, not only for learning but for healthy brain development overall.

Dr. Monzée concluded that helping children requires respecting the natural rhythm of their development and acknowledging how environmental and climatic changes influence their growth.

Silvia Dubovoy focused on the extraordinary developmental intensity of the first three years of life. During this period, experiences leave deep imprints, shaping the brain’s architecture and establishing lifelong habits—including those tied to health and hygiene.

She offered a compelling perspective on the mouth as a gateway into early experience. Beyond nutrition, the mouth plays a central role in bonding, emotional regulation, sensory integration, and pleasure during the first year of life. In this sense, oral health is not merely functional — it carries a story of development, connection, and joy.

Silvia underlined that the adult’s primary responsibility is careful, attentive observation. Instead of rushing to label behaviors—such as calling a child “ADHD”—adults should watch closely for signs of readiness and interest. This approach echoes the Montessori principle of help me do it by myself, where independence grows through meaningful, well-timed interactions. She also noted the need for more professionals trained in such observation, beginning as early as pregnancy.

Her presentation was structured around a series of developmental routines:

• observing the mother-infant dynamic even before birth;
• recognizing the importance of breastfeeding;
• understanding how emerging teeth invite imitation and learning;
• supporting toddlers as they learn through freedom and joy;
• and establishing water and balanced nutrition as early habits that connect personal health with planetary wellbeing.

Throughout her talk, she returned to the idea that attachment begins with observation. For her, oral health symbolizes much more than survival — it becomes a pathway to pleasure, empathy, self-regulation, environmental awareness, and ultimately a more peaceful way of relating to the world.

Karen Spruyt delivered one of the most urgent messages of the session: sleep is not just a biological function — it is the earliest, most sensitive indicator of a child’s autonomic, emotional, metabolic, and cognitive health.

And yet, she showed that sleep inequities begin shockingly early, often in infancy, following the same social, environmental and structural lines that shape a child’s lifelong wellbeing.

Spruyt explained that disrupted sleep is never “just sleep.”
It predicts behavioural dysregulation, emotional fragility, immune vulnerability, learning difficulties and a cascade of oral–respiratory dysfunctions that dramatically increase risk for noncommunicable diseases (NCDs).
One of her most powerful insights was the link between breathing-related sleep disturbances in early childhood and downstream outcomes such as attentional challenges, excess weight gain and oral health decline — patterns seen most sharply in children growing up with chronic stress or limited access to preventive care.

These are not individual failures. They are biologically embedded inequities. She emphasised that early sleep disruption reflects more than physiology: it reflects the conditions in which children live — noise, light, pollution, stress, housing instability, family routines and the availability (or absence) of healthcare and community support.

Her call to action was clear: healthy sleep must be recognised and protected as a foundational right of every child — a cornerstone of emotional regulation, metabolic stability, cognitive development and future resilience.

Dr. Spruyt closed by outlining practical strategies for families, educators, clinicians and policymakers to ensure that sleep becomes a central pillar of early prevention.
When we protect children’s sleep, she argued, we protect their entire developmental trajectory. A vital and eye-opening contribution to the field.

Umakanth Katwa presented a powerful clinical perspective on breathing disorders and pediatric sleep apnea, drawing from detailed case studies across different age groups. Through these real patient profiles, he demonstrated how early-life factors shape airway health across the lifespan and how critical it is to shift from late diagnosis to early prevention.

He first explained sleep apnea and breathing-disordered sleep, including how long patients typically rely on CPAP therapy, and why this condition deserves greater attention — especially in children. Sleep apnea, he emphasized, is not a minor disorder. Its long-term consequences affect multiple body systems, including:

• Cardiovascular health
• Metabolic function
• Endocrine balance
• Neuro-cognitive development
• Nocturnal enuresis

He then presented the global burden of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA):

• 936 million adults (ages 30–69) suffer from mild to severe OSA
• 425 million adults have moderate to severe OSA
• The highest prevalence is observed in China, the USA, Brazil, and India, making this a true global public health issue.

Katwa highlighted that the roots of adult sleep apnea can be traced back to early life, with contributing factors accumulating across the entire developmental timeline. These include:

• Genetic and epigenetic influences
• Prenatal and gestational conditions
• Postnatal and infancy-related factors
• Lifestyle behaviors
• Environmental influences, including pollution and climate change

He emphasized that each and every aspect of adult sleep apnea pathophysiology can begin early, making prevention in infancy and childhood both possible and necessary.

A major focus of his presentation was the Preventive Airway Health Model, which calls for early, proactive screening and intervention. Key preventive strategies include:

• Newborn screening tools
• Airway-focused screening during well-baby visits and early dental visits
• Lactation support
• Short-term pacifier use, with pacifier sizing guided by AI

He outlined important red flags in infants that should trigger early assessment:

• Premature birth
• Open mouth posture/mouth breathing
• Low facial muscle tone
• Tongue tie
• Low tongue posture
• Poor suck and swallow
• Dental crowding
• High-arched palate
• Snoring

Dr. Katwa stressed that early intervention in infancy and childhood can prevent progression before symptoms fully develop. Such interventions include:

• Lactation support
• Speech and feeding therapy
• Optimization of oral health
• Functional appliances
• Early interceptive orthodontics

He concluded that the approach to airway health must be integrative, involving collaboration across pediatrics, dentistry, sleep medicine, and therapy disciplines. Most importantly, he called for a fundamental shift in medical thinking:
from symptom-based screening, diagnosi,s and treatment
to prevention, early intervention, and phenotype-based precision therapy.

His presentation reinforced a core message of the conference — the foundations of adult health are laid in early childhood, and proactive, interdisciplinary care can transform long-term outcomes.

Alison Baulos focused on the powerful evidence showing that investing in high-quality early childhood education produces the greatest social and economic returns, particularly for under-resourced children, and that these benefits unfold across multiple generations. She emphasised that the greatest productivity of public and philanthropic investment occurs in the early years of life.

Drawing on the economics of child development, she explained that human capital grows through the integration and transmission of key inputs such as parenting, health and education. Within this framework, promoting early childhood development is not only foundational — it must be the very first priority, especially for children at risk of abuse and neglect. She underscored the strong evidence showing that when neglect and abuse begin early, their harmful effects on children’s development are profound and long-lasting.

She also addressed a key challenge in public policy and philanthropy: many initiatives focus on isolated issues such as food insecurity, early learning and childcare, or mental health, while in reality, early childhood programs can and should be unified. This integrated approach is not only more effective—it is also economically efficient.

Baulos illustrated this with three landmark early childhood programs:

1. The Jamaica Programme. This program initially targeted children at risk of low physical development. Rather than focusing solely on nutrition, the intervention centered on parenting support. The results showed that children whose parents received this support demonstrated significantly higher IQ gains than those who did not. The program revealed that early investments create a strong base for upward mobility, leading to long-term gains in education, independence, workforce participation and income.
2. The Carolina Abecedarian Project. This was a full-day, center-based childcare program starting from six weeks of age and continuing until school entry. The children experienced a language-rich environment with supportive adult-child interactions. For every dollar invested in high-quality birth-to-five programs for under-resourced children, the program delivered a 13% annual return on investment. The intervention operated full day, full year, showing that healthier adults ultimately build a healthier economy. Although the program did not work directly with parents, the children experienced profound long-term benefits. Baulos highlighted that comprehensive early childhood education programs reduce the risk of costly chronic diseases, increase economic productivity, and lower long-term health expenditures. Importantly, the return on investment benefits not only the individual child, but also families and society as a whole.
3. The Perry Preschool Programme. This program focused on high-quality preschool education, with participants followed until age 15 through multiple psychological studies. The results showed that Perry Preschool participants formed the foundations for stronger family lives, which in turn generated even larger gains for their own children. The data revealed substantial second-generation effects on education, health, employment and crime reduction. Notably, the children of Perry Preschool participants spent at least three times more years in stable married-family environments before age 18.

Alison concluded by stressing that science must continue to explore how and why these programs work. Across all successful models, one crucial factor stands out: the active ingredient is the care workers themselves. She emphasised that to enable parents to become the strongest possible advocates for their children, professionals must first be strong advocates for the parents.