CHILD was officially launched during in August 2021. In the opening address by Prof Chong Yap Seng, Dean of NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, and Executive Director of A*STAR Singapore Institute for Clinical Sciences (SICS), he highlighted the importance of the critical years of early childhood, and how CHILD will play a part to help improve the health and developmental outcomes of children to ensure that every child has the best start to life.
Ms Rahayu Mahzam, Parliamentary Secretary of Ministry of Communications and Information and Ministry of Health (Singapore), was the keynote speaker. She elaborated on the three key thrusts of the inter-agency taskforce, focused on developing a national Child and Maternal Health and Well-being Strategy, and how the role of CHILD can support its strategies. She added that the launch of CHILD signifies the start of more conversations to consider how research could better inform policies and programmes to benefit more children and their families.
Co-Directors of CHILD, Prof Yung Seng Lee and A/Prof Robyn Mildon, CEI’s Executive Director, hosted and moderated the panel.
A key insight on Digital Media Use and Brain Development shared by Assistant Professor Evelyn Law, Dept of Paediatrics, NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, and Principal Investigator of the Translational Neuroscience Programme at A*STAR Singapore Institute for Clinical Sciences (SICS), opened the discussion on the impacts of passive screen time viewing during early childhood years.
The panel discussion with our invited guests, Prof Philip Fisher, Director of Centre for Translational Neuroscience, University of Oregon, Ms Vivienne Ng, Chief Psychologist at Ministry of Social and Family Development, Singapore (MSF), and Prof Donna Cross at The University of Western Australia and Programme Head of Development and Education at Telethon Kids Institute, provided various insights and perspectives on bringing evidence-based research to policy and practice.
The webinar can be watched here.
