Professor Kathy Sylva OBE delivered this Keynote lecture ‘The Role of Early Childhood Education in Supporting the Mental Health of Children’ on Thursday 9 November at the ACAMH Awards. Professor Sylva was the recipient of ACAMH’s Michael Rutter Medal for Lifetime Contribution to Child and Adolescent Mental Health.
The ACAMH Awards aim to recognise high-quality work in evidence-based science, both in publication and practice, in the field of child and adolescent mental health.
ACAMH Members can receive a CPD certificate, simply email and let us know the date and time that you watched the recording.
Kathy is Professor of Educational Psychology and Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Oxford. She has had many roles in ACAMH including chair of the Board, President, and member of the editorial team on CAMH where she led on the ‘Measurement Review’ section. Her research focuses on early childhood, and she has carried out large scale, longitudinal studies on the effects of Early Childhood Education and Care on children’s development. She has also carried out interventions to support parents with their children’s learning and development at home. A dominant theme throughout her work has been the impact of education and care not only on academic knowledge but also on children’s behaviour, self-regulation, and disposition to learn. A related theme in her research is the impact of early intervention on combating social disadvantage in both high and low income countries. Kathy has been specialist advisor to Select Committees in the House of Commons and the House of Lords. Currently she is ACAMH’s Honorary Treasurer, a role she enjoys because it involves her in a broad range of activities across the Association. Her current interest within ACAMH is in engaging with schools to support mental health and well-being in children and adolescents.
