The First 1000 Days 1kD

The 1kD program is an international effort to better understand executive development in toddlers up to 1000 days old.

In the  first 1000 days the brain undergoes rapid network reconstruction that can be affected by environmental stimuli. The specific stimuli and effect of these stimuli are not well characterized however. The 1kD program was created by Wellcome Leap to study this. Sage is engaged as the data coordinating center to help the 10 groups sponsored by Wellcome Leap to collaborate and use team approaches to reach the program’s goals. 

These goals include:

  1. Develop a fully integrated model and quantitative measurement tools of network development in the first 1000 days, sufficient to predict executive function formation before a child’s first birthday, with 80% predictive validity for EF outcomes at age 3.
  2. Create scalable methods for optimizing promotion, prevention, screening and therapeutic interventions to improve EF by at least 20% in 80% of children before age 3. Of interest are improvements from underdeveloped EF to normative or from normative to well-developed EF across the population to deliver the broadest impact. Techniques that improve EF by 80% or more in 20% of at-risk children are important, but they are not the sole focus of this program.