© 2009 Canadian Medical Association or its licensors

Astrong case has been built in support of the import-ance of early child development based on the “newneuroscience.”1–3 We now understand that health, emotional well-being and life success have their roots in early childhood. This has implications for all countries that are signatories to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child because each of these countries is respon-sible for providing children with the opportunities necessary to develop physical, cognitive, social and emotional cap-acities in early life.4 In this article, we discuss the approaches that can be used to monitor early childhood development. An ongoing flow of high-quality information about the state of early child development, its determinants and long-term development outcomes is essential for fulfilling these commitments. The importance of developing measures of early child development at a population level should be self-evident if we believe that “what gets counted, counts. ” Wit