Untitled

“Sometimes the greatest barrier to participation is not what a person cannot do, but what their environment does not allow them to do.” When I first learnt about the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), I saw them as seventeen global goals that seemed far removed from my everyday reality as an occupational therapy student. I associated them with governments, policies and international organisations. Working in Cato Manor has changed that perspective. I am beginning to understand that the SDGs are not simply goals written on paper; they are reflected in whether a child can learn, whether a parent can provide, whether a person can access healthcare and whether individuals have the freedom to participate in occupations that give their lives meaning.

Figure 1 Caption: Figure 1. The 17 Sustainable Development Goals. This blog reflects on SDG 1, 3, 4, 5 and 17. The wheel illustrates how each goal is interconnected – occupational deprivation in one area affects participation across all domains. (Source: United)

One encounter in the community brought five of these goals together for me: SDG 1 – No Poverty, SDG 3 – Good Health and Well-being, SDG 4 – Quality Education, SDG 5 – Gender Equality and SDG 17 – Partnerships for the Goals.

During a community visit to an early childhood setting, I met a young mother who had brought her child to the clinic. While speaking to her, she explained that she wanted to return to school and eventually find employment, but caring for her child made this difficult. She was already struggling financially, and transport costs made accessing services more difficult. Her child was also experiencing difficulties with attention, fine-motor skills and participating in classroom activities.

At first, I saw several separate problems: a child needing developmental support, a young mother needing assistance and a family experiencing financial difficulties. As I reflected more deeply, I realised that I was looking at one occupational story rather than several unrelated problems.

The mother's financial difficulties reflected SDG 1: No Poverty. Poverty was not simply about how much money the family had. It influenced transport, access to resources, education and the opportunities available to both mother and child. This challenged my previous understanding of poverty as primarily an economic issue. Through occupational therapy, I have learnt that when resources are limited, occupational participation can become limited too. A person may have the ability and motivation to participate in an occupation but lack the environmental resources required to do so.

This also made me question how I approach intervention. Recommending expensive equipment or resources would not necessarily be sustainable. Instead, I could use recycled and locally available materials, adapt household objects and connect the family with existing community resources. This is where my professional thinking has shifted from “What can I provide?” to “What can realistically be sustained within this person's environment?”

The child's developmental difficulties connected directly to SDG 4: Quality Education. School readiness is not only about whether a child can hold a pencil or follow instructions. It involves play, social participation, attention, communication, fine-motor skills and the opportunity to engage in meaningful learning experiences. Landreth (2002) emphasises the importance of play in children's development, reminding me that play is not simply entertainment; it is an important occupation through which children develop.

As an OT student, I could easily focus on what the child cannot do. Cato Manor has encouraged me to look more carefully at what opportunities the child has been given. Limited resources do not automatically mean limited potential. Simple materials such as cardboard, bottle tops, pegs and recycled containers can support developmental and school-readiness activities. More importantly, teaching caregivers and educators how to continue these activities means that intervention can continue after the OT student leaves. This has shifted my understanding of intervention from doing therapy to building capacity.

At the same time, the mother's situation made SDG 5: Gender Equality impossible to ignore. She was expected to fulfil the responsibilities of motherhood while trying to maintain her own education and future aspirations. Her situation reminded me that having a right to education does not always mean having equal access to that opportunity. Without childcare, transport, financial support and a supportive environment, her choices become restricted

This made me reflect on occupational justice. Education, parenting, employment, leisure and social participation are all occupations. A young woman should not have her occupational identity reduced to motherhood simply because she has become a mother. As an OT, I can support routines, parenting, education planning and vocational exploration, but I must also listen to what she wants for her own life. Empowerment should not mean deciding what is best for her; it should mean supporting her ability to make informed choices about her own occupations.

Her circumstances also connected to SDG 3: Good Health and Well-being. The child's developmental needs, the mother's wellbeing and the family's access to healthcare could not be separated from their living circumstances. This helped me understand that health is more than the absence of disease. The World Federation of Occupational Therapists highlights the relationship between occupation, health and wellbeing, which has become much more meaningful to me through community practice. I have also become more careful about the word “non-compliant.” If a person misses an appointment, it may be easy for a healthcare professional to place responsibility on the

individual. However, transport costs, childcare responsibilities, waiting times, financial pressures and limited information may all influence whether someone can access healthcare. My perspective has therefore shifted from judging behaviour to understanding context.

Finally, I realised that none of these issues could be addressed by occupational therapy alone. The child's teacher understands the classroom. The caregiver understands the home environment. Healthcare professionals may identify developmental or health concerns. Social workers and community organisations may provide resources and support. This is SDG 17: Partnerships for the Goals.

Partnerships have also made me reflect on power. As university students, we enter communities with academic knowledge and professional terminology, but this does not make us experts on people's lives. Community members possess knowledge about their own experiences that cannot be learnt from a textbook. Sustainable practice therefore requires us to work with communities rather than simply doing things to communities. It requires collaboration, listening, referral networks, clear handovers and interventions that can continue beyond our placement.

This single experience has changed how I understand sustainable development and occupational therapy. I entered the community thinking that my role was primarily to identify problems and provide interventions. I am leaving with a more complex understanding of the relationship between the person, occupation and environment. Poverty can restrict participation. Health can influence education. Gender expectations can limit occupational choice. Education can influence future opportunities. And without partnerships, even good interventions may not be sustainable.

My biggest perspective shift has been moving from asking “What is wrong with this person?” to recognising “What is happening around this person?”

I cannot end poverty in Cato Manor. I cannot transform the education system or eliminate gender inequality through one intervention. However, I can develop resource-conscious interventions, promote participation, educate caregivers, collaborate with other sectors and use my developing professional voice to advocate for occupational justice.

The SDGs are therefore no longer just global goals to me. In Cato Manor, they have become people, occupations, barriers and possibilities. They have taught me that occupational therapy is not only about helping people adapt to their circumstances. Sometimes, it is about recognising when the environment itself needs to change.

Perhaps sustainable development begins when we stop asking only what we can do for a community and start asking what we can do with it.

https://youtu.be/-pryCzwDbXY?si=mfuFX9qy5MXi1mJ1

REFERENCES

Aubrey, C. (2017). Sources of inequality in South African early child development services. South African Journal of Childhood Education, 7(1), a450. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajce.v7i1.450

Department of Basic Education. (n.d.). Early childhood development. Republic of South Africa.

Department of Basic Education – Early Childhood Development

Mthembu, T. (2021). Applicability of the occupational justice and occupation-based community development frameworks for social transformation: Marikana event. South African Journal of Occupational Therapy, 51(1), 72. https://doi.org/10.17159/2310-3833/2021/vol51n1a10

World Health Organization. (2025, May 6). Social determinants of health.

"I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand." — Confucius I remember my first morning at Cato Manor the way you remember a place that quietly changes you forever. By 7:30 a.m. the clinic was already overflowing. Mothers balanced babies on their backs while gently rocking restless toddlers. Elderly patients waited patiently on worn benches, and the queue stretched beyond the clinic gates. Standing there with my referral folder, my assessment forms and four years of lecture notes, I remember thinking, I know what to do here. Looking back now, I realise I was only partly right.

Figure 1:The clinic queue became my first lesson in understanding Primary Health Care beyond theory

UKZN had prepared me to think like an occupational therapist, but Cato Manor taught me what it truly means to become one. Reflecting on UKZN's Occupational Therapy curriculum, I have come to appreciate that preparation for practice extends beyond acquiring knowledge. It is about developing a way of seeing people, occupations and communities. My placement in Cato Manor has not diminished my appreciation for the curriculum; rather, it has deepened it while revealing areas where occupational therapy education can continue to evolve within the South African Primary Health Care (PHC) context.

Figure 2 Caption: Figure 1. Four years of theory, lying on the road where practice actually happens. The gap between these pages and this place is bigger than I expected.

One of the greatest strengths of the UKZN curriculum is its strong theoretical foundation. Throughout the programme we are introduced to the principles of Primary Health Care, health promotion, prevention, occupational justice and person-centred practice. At the time, these concepts often existed as lecture slides, tutorials and examinations. In Cato Manor, they became real people.

I still remember meeting a mother whose sixteen-month-old child was not yet walking. Instead of immediately focusing on delayed milestones, I instinctively began considering the interaction between the child, the environment and the occupations that filled his everyday life. The Person-Environment-Occupation-Performance (PEOP) model suddenly became much more than a framework I had memorised for an examination. It became a way of understanding why developmental delays cannot be separated from overcrowded living conditions, limited opportunities for play, caregiver stress and restricted access to healthcare (Baum et al., 2015). That moment made me appreciate something important: UKZN had taught me not only what to assess, but how to think. Research by Naidoo, Van Wyk and Joubert (2014) found that final-year occupational therapy students generally felt well prepared regarding clinical reasoning and professional knowledge. Standing in that consultation room, I realised I shared that confidence.

I was able to analyse occupational performance, identify occupational barriers and approach intervention holistically because the curriculum had already developed those ways of thinking.

Equally valuable was the programme's emphasis on therapeutic use of self. Before Cato Manor, concepts such as empathy, cultural humility and client-centred practice felt like professional expectations. In the community, they became essential clinical skills. I learnt that meaningful intervention often begins long before an assessment is completed. Sometimes the most therapeutic occupation is simply creating space for someone to tell their story without interruption or judgement.

As Archbishop Desmond Tutu famously said, "My humanity is bound up in yours, for we can only be human together." Sitting beside caregivers rather than standing over them reminded me that occupational therapy is fundamentally relational. My role was not to rescue people but to work alongside them, respecting their knowledge of their own lives while contributing my professional expertise.

The curriculum also prepared me remarkably well for understanding South Africa's health system. I recognised the role of community health workers before they introduced themselves. I understood why health promotion, prevention and early intervention are fundamental principles of PHC rather than optional additions to rehabilitation. More importantly, I understood that occupational therapists have an essential role beyond hospitals supporting participation where people live, learn, work and play.

However, Cato Manor also reminded me that there is a difference between learning about communities and learning within communities.

By the middle of my first day, I realised that some of the most valuable lessons cannot be taught in lecture theatres. A grandmother approached me asking whether I could help reinstate her disability grant. Another caregiver spoke about struggling to care for her grandchildren while managing chronic pain herself. These were not simply clinical problems requiring therapeutic intervention. They reflected broader social determinants of health that shaped occupational participation every day.

In those moments I realised that my education had equipped me with precise clinical tools, but community practice often demanded broader competencies. I knew how to complete an occupational profile and develop intervention goals, yet I felt less confident navigating systems of advocacy, engaging local leadership or understanding how policy decisions influence the occupations of entire communities.

This reflection is supported by Naidoo, Van Wyk and Waggie (2017), who found that many occupational therapy graduates felt challenged when transitioning into Primary Health Care and resource-constrained settings because much of their undergraduate training occurred within well-resourced tertiary hospitals. Reading those findings before my placement would have been interesting; living them made them meaningful.

Another reflection that has remained with me concerns the timing of community exposure within our curriculum. UKZN does an excellent job introducing students to the philosophy of Primary Health Care throughout the degree. However, I found myself wondering how much richer my learning would have been if immersive community placements had begun earlier, perhaps as dedicated blocks during third year rather than primarily in fourth year.

Communities cannot be understood through occasional visits alone. Building trust with caregivers, understanding community assets and challenges, and developing culturally responsive interventions require time. Looking back, I believe earlier longitudinal community immersion would strengthen students' confidence while allowing theoretical learning and lived experience to develop alongside one another rather than sequentially.

There were also moments that made me reflect on the content of our curriculum itself. One example was hand therapy. Throughout our degree, we are introduced to upper limb assessment and splinting, recognising its importance within occupational therapy practice. However, working in Cato Manor highlighted how frequently people experience hand and upper limb conditions that directly affect their occupations. whether preparing meals, carrying groceries, caring for grandchildren, washing clothes or earning an income through informal work. These experiences did not make me question the value of hand therapy; rather, they made me wish we had explored it in greater depth because of how relevant it becomes in community practice. It reminded me that even highly specialised skills have an important place within Primary Health Care when viewed through an occupational lens.

The greatest lesson Cato Manor has taught me, however, has been about perspective.

Before this placement, I believed occupational therapy was primarily about improving function. Today, I understand that it is equally about enabling participation. Sometimes enabling participation means facilitating developmental play or teaching a caregiver positioning techniques. Other times, it means empowering families with knowledge, advocating for community resources, or helping caregivers recognise their own strengths. Occupational therapists working within PHC are not only rehabilitation professionals, we are educators, advocates, collaborators and agents of health promotion.

This shift in thinking has also changed how I understand occupational justice. During lectures, occupational justice was presented as everyone's right to participate in meaningful occupations. In Cato Manor, I witnessed how easily that right can be limited by circumstances beyond an individual's control. Poverty, unemployment, inadequate housing, food insecurity and unequal access to healthcare all influenced the occupations of the families I encountered. Children were not always delayed because of underlying impairments alone; many lacked opportunities for stimulation because caregivers were overwhelmed by competing demands. Older adults struggled to fulfil valued family roles because chronic conditions restricted their occupational performance while limited resources restricted access to rehabilitation services.

These experiences challenged me to move beyond asking, "What is wrong with this person?" and instead ask, "What barriers within this environment are preventing occupational participation?" That subtle change in questioning represents one of the most important perspective shifts I have experienced as a student occupational therapist.

It also highlighted the political nature of Primary Health Care. Occupational therapists cannot separate occupation from the systems that shape people's lives. Every inaccessible service, delayed referral, under-resourced clinic or unsupported caregiver reflects broader structural inequalities. As future healthcare professionals, our responsibility extends beyond individual intervention. Advocacy becomes part of our professional identity. Sometimes advocacy is speaking at policy level, but more often it begins with educating caregivers, collaborating with community health workers, strengthening local support networks and ensuring that every person is treated with dignity and respect.

Reflecting on UKZN's curriculum, I believe it successfully develops ethical practitioners with strong theoretical knowledge, clinical reasoning skills and a genuine appreciation for client-centred practice. These are significant strengths that should remain central to occupational therapy education. However, my experiences in Cato Manor have also shown me opportunities for growth.

If I could recommend one change, it would be earlier and more sustained community immersion. Rather than limiting intensive community placements to fourth year, I believe dedicated community blocks beginning in third year would allow students to progressively develop confidence within Primary Health Care settings. Relationships with communities cannot be developed in a few visits, nor can students fully appreciate contextual practice without spending meaningful time within those environments.

Similarly, expanding practical teaching around advocacy, programme development, community mobilisation and intersectoral collaboration would strengthen graduates entering South Africa's public health system. These competencies do not replace clinical expertise; they complement it. They prepare occupational therapists not only to rehabilitate individuals but also to contribute meaningfully to healthier communities.

Looking back at my first day in Cato Manor, I realise I arrived believing that I was there to teach and provide therapy. As the weeks progressed, I discovered that the community was teaching me just as much. It taught me humility. It taught me to listen before intervening. It taught me that meaningful occupational therapy is not measured by how many interventions are completed but by how well we understand the lives of the people we serve.

Perhaps that is the greatest gift UKZN has given me. The curriculum provided the knowledge, values and professional identity that allowed me to enter Cato Manor with confidence. Cato Manor, in turn, transformed that knowledge into wisdom. Together, they have shaped not only the occupational therapist I hope to become, but also the person I am still becoming.

A question I am sitting with

If a single first day at Cato Manor can show me exactly which of my four years is missing, why does the curriculum wait until year four to FULLY send me there?

RESOURCES

World Federation of Occupational Therapists. (2016). Community-based rehabilitation guidelines.https://wfot.org/resources/community-based-rehabilitation

These guidelines outline the competencies OTs need for community practice – including advocacy, community mobilisation, inter-sectoral collaboration, and working with traditional healers. I will compare them to UKZN's curriculum. Where are the gaps?

PHC Re-engineering Framework (Department of Health, 2011) https://pmhp.za.org/

This framework outlines the three streams of PHC re-engineering: ward-based outreach teams, school health services, and district clinical specialist teams. I will read this to understand where occupational therapy fits or should fit into South Africa's PHC system and to explain how OTs currently engage with each stream.

Naidoo, D., Van Wyk, J., & Joubert, R. W. (2014). Are final year occupational therapy students adequately prepared for clinical practice? A case study in KwaZulu-Natal. South African Journal of Occupational Therapy, 44(2), 24-28.  https://www.sajot.co.za/index.php/sajot/article/view/230

This study surveyed final year UKZN OT students about their readiness for clinical practice. I will compare my own feelings of preparedness to their findings. If fourth-year students in 2014 felt underprepared for PHC, and I feel underprepared in 2026, then the curriculum has not shifted. That is a finding worth naming.

Naidoo, D., Van Wyk, J., & Waggie, F. (2017). Occupational therapy graduates' reflections on their ability to cope with primary healthcare and rural practice during community service. South African Journal of Occupational Therapy, 47(4), 40-47. https://www.sajot.co.za/index.php/sajot/article/view/424

This study follows UKZN graduates into their community service year. Their reflections on feeling unprepared for PHC and rural practice mirror my own experience in Week 2. I will quote one finding in my Week 3 email to my lecturer.

REFERENCES

Baum, C. M., Christiansen, C. H., & Bass-Haugen, J. D. (2015). Occupational therapy: Performance, participation, and well-being (4th ed.). SLACK Incorporated.

Naidoo, D., & Van Wyk, J. M. (2023). Competencies required to deliver a primary healthcare approach in occupational therapy: A South African perspective. Occupational Therapy International, 2023, Article 4965740. https://doi.org/10.1155/2023/4965740

Naidoo, D., Van Wyk, J., & Joubert, R. W. (2014). Are final-year occupational therapy students adequately prepared for clinical practice? A case study in KwaZulu-Natal. South African Journal of Occupational Therapy, 44(2), 24–28.

Naidoo, D., Van Wyk, J., & Waggie, F. (2017). Occupational therapy graduates' reflections on their ability to cope with primary healthcare and rural practice during community service. South African Journal of Occupational Therapy, 47(4), 40–47.

Townsend, E. A., & Polatajko, H. J. (2013). Enabling occupation II: Advancing an occupational therapy vision for health, well-being, and justice through occupation (2nd ed.). Canadian Association of Occupational Therapists.

Wilcock, A. A., & Townsend, E. (2009). Occupational justice. Journal of Occupational Science, 16(2), 84–86.

"If every child deserves the opportunity to thrive, why do we so often forget the person carrying them?"

There is a saying that "it takes a village to raise a child." But after spending time in the Cato Manor community, I have found myself asking a different question: what happens when the village is exhausted?

As students, we are taught to assess movement, development, play, sensory processing and participation. We learn how to identify delays, analyse occupations and develop evidence-based interventions. When I first arrived at my community placement, I believed one of my roles was to help children with CP, ASD, GDD and DS reach their developmental milestones.

"Every therapy journey begins long before the clinic it begins with the caregiver who never stops showing up."

It began with a mother. Although every child had a different diagnosis and every caregiver had a different story, one thing remained painfully constant.

They were tired. Not the kind of tired that disappears after a good night's sleep, but the kind that settles into your bones after years of lifting your child, travelling long distances for appointments, waiting in overcrowded clinics, worrying about finances and still finding enough energy to smile when your child smiles.

This blog explores why maternal and child health matters to South African society and what this means for occupational therapists working at a community level like Cato Manor.

One morning at the clinic in Cato Manor, I was assessing a child with CP and like every student eager to apply what I had learnt in class, I immediately focused on what I had been trained to see, muscle tone, posture, trunk control, sitting balance and upper limb function. My attention was completely on the child. But while discussing the child's progress with my classmates, I glanced across at the mother sitting quietly beside us. She had not said much throughout the session, but it was the way she held her child that caught my attention. Every movement seemed practised, almost automatic, as though she had repeated the same lifting, positioning and comforting routine thousands of times before. She looked physically present, but emotionally and physically exhausted.

As we spoke with her, she quietly shared that most nights she barely slept because her child struggled to settle comfortably. She explained that everything revolved around clinic appointments, carrying her child, managing the household and caring for the rest of her family. She smiled while telling us this, but it was the kind of smile that seemed to hide years of fatigue rather than joy.

In that moment, something shifted within me. I realised I had spent almost thirty minutes assessing the child's abilities, yet I had not once considered the occupations of the person sitting beside them. I had analysed the child's participation without recognising that the caregiver's own occupations, sleeping, resting, working, socialising and caring for herself had slowly disappeared. That experience fundamentally changed how I see OT. I no longer believe that the child is the only client in the room. Every child arrives with someone whose life has also been transformed by disability. If we overlook the caregiver's wellbeing, we risk overlooking one of the greatest influences on the child's participation and development.

Since that day, one of the first questions I silently ask myself before every paediatric session is no longer, "What does this child need?" but rather, "How is the person caring for this child coping?" I have learnt that the answer to that question often shapes the success of every intervention that follows. Before this placement, maternal and child health meant antenatal care, immunisations and reducing mortality rates. Those are undeniably important, but I have come to understand that maternal and child health extends far beyond keeping mothers and babies alive. It is about creating the conditions in which families can participate in everyday life with dignity, hope and opportunity.

Research consistently demonstrates that the earliest years of life shape future health, education and occupational participation. Black et al. (2021) explain that the first 1,000 days of life are a critical period for brain development, where maternal nutrition, physical health, emotional wellbeing and responsive caregiving influence children's lifelong outcomes. Likewise, the Nurturing Care Framework highlights that children flourish when they experience good health, adequate nutrition, safety, opportunities for learning and nurturing, responsive relationships (Britto et al., 2022).

Working in Cato Manor gave those words faces. Every child we worked with came with a diagnosis, but every diagnosis also came with a caregiver carrying an invisible load.

Some mothers travelled for hours using multiple taxis to attend therapy. Others balanced caring for children with disabilities while raising siblings, searching for employment or managing their own health conditions. Others quietly admitted they no longer knew whether they were "doing enough." I realised something uncomfortable.

We often describe caregiver involvement as important for therapy outcomes, but rarely do we ask whether caregivers themselves are being cared for. OT has taught me to look beyond impairments and understand people within the occupations and environments that shape their lives. Community practice has challenged me to take that one step further.

The child is never the only client in the room. As students, we notice how caregivers position their children during feeding, whether they encourage play, how they respond when frustration arises, whether they feel confident implementing home programmes and whether exhaustion has begun replacing hope. Initially, I thought educating caregivers was simply another intervention. Now I believe it is the intervention.

Instead of asking,

"What is the ideal intervention?"

I began asking, "What intervention is realistic within this family's everyday occupations?"

Those are not the same question. One reflects textbook practice. The other reflects community practice. This placement has also changed the way I view health inequalities.

Before entering the community, I understood concepts such as occupational justice and social determinants of health academically. Now I have seen them lived out daily. Hall et al. (2023) remind us that South African children's opportunities are deeply influenced by poverty, unemployment, access to healthcare, education and safe living environments. In Cato Manor, these realities are impossible to ignore.

Children with disabilities are not only navigating disability, but they are also navigating disability within communities affected by poverty, overcrowding, unemployment and limited resources. Sometimes I wonder whether we celebrate resilience too easily. We praise mothers for their strength. Yet should resilience be something society depends upon?

Should caregivers sacrifice their own physical and mental health because respite services are scarce? Should love to compensate for systems that continue to underserve families?

These questions have made me realise that OT is not only about rehabilitation. It is also about advocacy. As future occupational therapists, we cannot only advocate for children to participate in meaningful occupations. We must also advocate for caregivers to have opportunities to rest, work, socialise, care for themselves and receive the support they deserve.

Ignoring caregiver wellbeing is not neutral. It quietly limits the child's opportunities for participation too. Maternal and child health is therefore not simply a healthcare issue. It is an issue of occupational justice, human dignity and social responsibility.

Because when we invest in mothers, we invest in children.

When we invest in children, we strengthen families.

And when families are supported, communities begin to thrive.

So perhaps the most important question I will carry into my future practice is no longer,

"What does this child need?"

Instead, it is,

"Who is caring for the caregiver

I have identified four resources for maternal and child health in this context:

Helpful Resources

Perinatal Mental Health Project (PMHP) Supporting maternal mental health through counselling, education and referrals. https://pmhp.za.org

Down Syndrome South Africa (DSSA) Information, advocacy and family support services. https://www.downsyndrome.org.za

Action in Autism (KwaZulu-Natal) Support, education and intervention services for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder and their families. https://actioninautism.org.za

South African Depression and Anxiety Group (SADAG) Mental health support for caregivers experiencing stress, burnout and depression. Helpline: 0800 21 22 23 https://www.sadag.org

MomConnect: A national digital platform registering pregnancies and sending health information via SMS or WhatsApp (Centre for Public Service Innovation, 2026). Dial *134*550*2# or register at any clinic.

References

Black, M. M., Walker, S. P., Fernald, L. C. H., Andersen, C. T., DiGirolamo, A. M., Lu, C., McCoy, D. C., Fink, G., Shawar, Y. R., Shiffman, J., Devercelli, A. E., Wodon, Q., Vargas-Barón, E., & Grantham-McGregor, S. (2021). Early childhood development coming of age: Science through the life course. The Lancet.

Britto, P. R., Lye, S. J., Proulx, K., Yousafzai, A. K., Matthews, S. G., Vaivada, T., Perez-Escamilla, R., Rao, N., Ip, P., Fernald, L., MacMillan, H., Hanson, M., Wachs, T. D., Yao, H., Yoshikawa, H., Cerezo, A., Leckman, J. F., & Bhutta, Z. A. (2022). Nurturing care: Promoting early childhood development. The BMJ.

Hall, K., Sambu, W., Berry, L., Giese, S., & Almeleh, C. (2023). South African Child Gauge 2023. Children's Institute, University of Cape Town.