History of Early Childhood Matters

The Van Leer Foundation began publishing a newsletter in 1971 to share news and knowledge among the Foundation’s partners.

Surveys revealed that the newsletter was being used well beyond the Foundation’s network of partners: “for teaching/training, to spark discussions and share ideas”

The newsletter format was transformed into a journal and rebranded as Early Childhood Matters

Early Childhood Matters was being published as a print journal biannually in English and in Spanish as Espacio para la Infancia

In 2015, Early Childhood Matters and Espacio para la Infancia changed to an annual publication, covering advances in early childhood from the previous year.

The first online platform of Early Childhood Matters was launched to help ensure readers around the world could access insightful articles written by leaders from diverse sectors.

Language translation of Early Childhood Matters articles is expanded into Arabic, French, Hebrew, Spanish and Portuguese based on topic interest and geographic focus.

A new digital storytelling platform is launched for Early Childhood Matters. It improves access to the full story archive and gives a bigger spotlight to the community of authors and contributors who have been a part of the journal’s story