Professor Sam Wass

Institute for the Science of Early Year (University of East London), and Co-Author ‘Take Action on Distraction’

Professor Sam Wass is a child psychologist and neuroscientist who studied at Oxford, London, and Cambridge. He leads the Institute for the Science of Early Years in East London, which is one of the most demographically diverse areas of the world, and a major focus of their research is to explore how early living environments influence early attention, learning and stress. He studies typical and atypical development, including ADHD, autism, and anxiety, and collaborates on international projects studying early development. Sam has published over 100 academic articles and a book, and is one of the top two percent most-cited researchers in his field. He frequently appears in the media as an expert in child development, advising the UK Departments of Education and Health, charities like Save The Children, and brands such as Kinder, LEGO and Disney+. He was an on-screen scientist in five series of Channel 4’s award-winning The Secret Life of 4- and 5-Year-Olds.

11:20

1 Main programme

Keynote: Strong foundations: The neuroscience of Learning in a Changing

Childhood is changing rapidly and rising rates of SEND signal that many young children are struggling to cope with modern environments. This presentation outlines how brain systems develop through our early interactions with our environments. Early on, children learn best from slow-paced, predictable interactions. Yet modern environments and screen media often overload them with fast, unpredictable stimulation, driving stress-related brainstem activation and contributing to dysregulated behaviour. In this session, we discuss how we can increase predictability and reduce unnecessary cognitive load, to lay strong and stable learning foundations for all children—especially those most vulnerable.