Early Development & Learning Science

Early Development & Learning Science

An exciting convergence of research, from neuroscience to economics, highlights the crucial role of early development and learning (0–8 years) in lifelong health, economic, and social success. Yet parallel advances in translating this research into innovative practice — and training those who will implement it — lag behind. Our expanding knowledge base calls for the creation of a dynamic, integrated developmental science program that:

  • conducts cutting-edge scholarship,
  • translates the science into children’s diverse contexts,
  • links children’s real-world challenges in ways that inform the research, and
  • prepares professionals to use it in their work with young children and families.

UC Berkeley, the premier public research university, is uniquely positioned — with world-renowned scholars and a diverse student body — to make remarkable progress in redefining developmental science on young children. Key scholars are committed to creative partnerships that integrate understanding across neuroscience, developmental psychology, education, public health, economics, social welfare, and policy. UC Berkeley’s 27,000 undergraduates exemplify what is possible with opportunity: 28% are first-generation college students, 21% have transferred from community colleges, and 40% speak a home language in addition to English. Notably, more than 20% of entering Letters & Science undergraduates reported strong interest in the new ED&LS Program. With a deep commitment to excellence, access, and diversity, the ED&LS Program will simultaneously innovate learning for UC Berkeley students and for young children worldwide.

 

Our Academic Programs

We have two complementary programs in Early Development & Learning Science:

  • Graduate
    • Transdisciplinary Early Learning Science & Childhood Policy Certificate
    • 4+1 Masters Degree Program (Launching 2024)
       
  • Undergraduate
    • The Developing Child Summer Minor and Certificate prepares students and professionals to integrate science, practice, and policy knowledge with problem-solving implementation skills in the real world.

People

LEADERSHIP TEAM

Margaret Bridges is a Developmental Psychologist, Research Scientist, and instructor at Berkeley's Institute of Human Development. She leads the new Early Development & Learning Science Program at UC Berkeley, a trans-disciplinary, developmental science program focused on young children from the prenatal period to age eight. In her research, Dr. Bridges studies how families and preschool experiences contribute to the social-emotional development and early academic skills of young children. In addition, she researches how families can be supported more effectively to foster these skills.

Luvy Vanegas-Grimaud is the ED&LS and Research Coordinator at IHD. She is also the student advisor of The Developing Child minor and certificate program. Luvy is adjunct lecturer in the Graduate School of Education at San Francisco State University and is actively involved in various international teacher trainings. She leads the Early Childhood Inquiry Group at UC Berkeley and is dedicated to helping early childhood educators become teacher researchers.

Ron Dahl is a pediatrician and developmental scientist who has devoted more than 30 years to interdisciplinary team research to improve the lives of children and adolescents. This work has focused on basic science studies of child and adolescent development, behavioral/emotional health in youth, sleep and arousal regulation, adolescent brain development, and the clinical, public health, and policy implications of this work. A major focus of his current research is bringing a developmental science perspective to advance understanding of both the vulnerabilities and opportunities being created by rapid changes in the ways that information technology is influencing learning and development. Ron is a Professor in the School of Public Health at the University of California, Berkeley. He is also the Founding Director of the Center for the Developing Adolescent and former President of the Society for Research in Child Development.

Alison Gopnik is a professor of Psychology and affiliate professor of Philosophy at UC Berkeley. She received her BA from McGill University and her PhD. from Oxford University. She is a world leader in the study of children’s learning and development. She is the author or coauthor of over 100 journal articles and several books including “Words, thoughts and theories,” “The Scientist in the Crib,”  “The Philosophical Baby; What children’s minds tell us about love, truth and the meaning of life,” and “The Gardener and the Carpenter: What the new science of child development tells us about the relationship between parents and children.” She writes the “Mind and Matter” column for the Wall Street Journal, and has written widely about cognitive science and psychology for Science, The New York Times, The Atlantic, Scientific American, The Times Literary Supplement, The New York Review of Books, New Scientist and Slate. 

Stephen Hinshaw is Professor of Psychology at the UC Berkeley, and Vice Chair for Psychology in the Department of Psychiatry at the UC San Francisco. He received his B.A. from Harvard and his doctorate in clinical psychology from UCLA. His work focuses on developmental psychopathology, clinical interventions, and mental illness stigma, with specialization in ADHD.  Hinshaw has authored over 300 publications plus 14 books, including The Mark of Shame: Stigma of Mental Illness and an Agenda for Change (2007), The Triple Bind: Saving our Teenage Girls from Today’s Pressures (2009), (with R. Scheffler) The ADHD Explosion: Myths, Medications, Money, and Today’s Push for Performance (2014), and (with K. Ellison), ADHD: What Everyone Needs to Know (2015). He is editor of Psychological Bulletin, and a fellow of the Association for Psychological Science, the American Psychological Association, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Mahesh Srinivasan is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology and a member of the Cognitive Science Faculty at the University of California, Berkeley. He received his Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology from Harvard University in 2011. On campus, Dr. Srinivasan directs the Language and Cognitive Development Laboratory, which uses empirical methods to explore how linguistic, cognitive, and social abilities arise and interact with one another during human development and across different cultures. Dr. Srinivasan’s work has been published in numerous journals, including Cognition, Cognitive Psychology, and Developmental Science, and is supported by the National Science Foundation.

UNDERGRADUATE FACULTY TEAM

Kelly Campbell is a faculty member in The Developing Child summer minor at UC Berkeley. As a graduate student, she served on the committee to design the interdisciplinary Early Development & Learning Science program. Building on her experience in art education and psychology, her research focuses on young children's transition from drawing into early writing. She has worked as a consultant with the Early Learning Lab and the Silicon Valley Community Foundation. During the pandemic, she's been working to help reframe the Early Childhood field (e.g., childcare, preschool, pre-K) toward using an umbrella term that better communicates current developmental science, such as the "Foundational Years."

Ruthe Foushee teaches the Applied Developmental Psychology course as part of The Developing Child minor. Now a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Chicago, Dr. Foushee received their Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology from the University of California, Berkeley in 2020, and their B.A. in Linguistics from Harvard in 2013. Dr. Foushee's research seeks to understand how linguistic communication 'works', using methodologies from behavioral experiments and eyetracking to computational models and corpus analysis, with language users from infancy through adulthood in the U.S., Mexico, and India. Dr. Foushee has worked to integrate language and developmental science with practice across diverse settings, including 'living laboratories' in museums and libraries, educator-led research embedded in preschool and elementary school classrooms, and science-informed curriculum for non-profit and social justice organizations.

Devanshi Unadkat is a PhD candidate in the Graduate School of Education at Cal. Her research focuses on the use of technologies as a tool for learning in various contexts with a focus on inclusive education. Prior to Cal, Devanshi taught preschool through second grade classrooms in the US and India and was also a special educator. She is currently a faculty member in the Department of Child Development at Santa Rosa Junior College. 

Kristen Burmester is the Associate Director of the UC Berkeley Early Childhood Education Program (ECEP). Prior to this position she collaborated with the California Department of Education (CDE) and WestEd on the Desired Results Developmental Profile (DRDP), developed the multi-generational Playschool Program in West Oakland, and served as the Chief Data Scientist and Director of Research for the early education edtech company Learning Genie. Kristen’s background in data science, research, and psychometrics has fueled the creation of systems and processes focused on how early development can best be observed, measured, monitored, and supported in order to introduce learning opportunities that best meet the needs of an individual child, and policies that support those goals.  Kristen holds an M.A. and Ph.D. in Policy, Organization, Measurement and Evaluation from the Graduate School of Education at UC Berkeley, has been the President of the California Educational Research Association, and is currently an adjunct professor at Mills College, Sonoma State University, and UC Berkeley.

Emma Armstrong-Carter graduated in April 2022 with her Ph.D from the Stanford Graduate School of Education at Stanford University. Emma enjoys hiking, playing three chords on guitar, reading, spending time with friends and family, petting cats, listening to country music, and drinking tea. She also loves writing and learning from children. 

Emma's research program lies at the intersection of child development, data science, and education policy. She researches how children’s experiences of helping others (e.g., family and peers) can promote their own learning and wellbeing. Further, she investigates how children’s experiences helping others can both exacerbate and mitigate the challenges that many children experience in homes with family disability, family illness, or difficult relationships. This transdisciplinary, integrative research addresses multiple contexts of development including family, school, neighborhood, and geographic influences. It also informs the design of school- and government-based policies that support children’s educational success.

Contact

If you have questions about our new programs, please email us at edls@berkeley.edu.