Dan Wuori – The Early Years & School Success
Known the world over for his daily child development lessons on social media, Dr. Wuori will explore common misconceptions about the early years and make the case for why our experiences during early childhood influence our success – not only in school – but for a lifetime.
This interactive session, featuring education from as early as during pregnancy, will explore:
- Three simple truths about child development and how they should serve as the basis for our planning for children (at the family, school, and public policy levels)
- How and why interactions during the earliest years of life shape children’s literacy and academic outcomes for years to come.
- How poverty and child development intersect in ways that can influence early school success – and what teachers can do about it.
- How a working knowledge of child development can – and should – inform our approach to teaching.
With more than 30 years of early years leadership, Dr. Dan Wuori is the Founder and President of Early Childhood Policy Solutions, an American public policy consultancy focused on the needs of young children, their families, and the early years professionals who serve them. He serves concurrently as a Strategic Advisor on Early Childhood to the Saul Zaentz Charitable Foundation. In both roles – and in his prior position as the founding Director of Early Childhood at The Hunt Institute in Cary, North Carolina – Dr. Wuori has worked alongside elected leaders to improve early years policy across the United States.
But to parents the world over, Dan is known not for his policy work, but for his innovative use of social media to educate about infants and toddlers – with more than a quarter million followers (across platforms) tuning in to his daily video child development lessons. This work was recently profiled in The New York Times, which called his X (Twitter) account “a font of delight and edification… educational, but also – put simply – awwwww.”
His new book The Daycare Myth: What We Get Wrong About Early Care and Education (and What We Should Do About It) was released in the United States in September 2024. Already in its third printing, the book – which explores the costly disconnect between what we know about the science of early development and our public policy – has topped Amazon’s education, education reform and policy, and developmental psychology best sellers lists.
What do we get wrong about Early Care and Education and what should we do about it?
Hosted by Dr Steve Murray, Trust Lead for Data Insights and Research at Trust in Learning Academies (TiLA). Steve has a MSc and PhD in Climate Science and has taught geography in a number of secondary schools in North Bristol. He also has experience in middle and senior leadership, with both pastoral and pedagogical responsibility. Steve supports TiLA in drawing insights from data for supporting school improvement, and linking educational research to classroom practice, in order to enhance teacher CPD and improve students’ academic progress. Follow Steve on X @EduResearching.
