The main aim of the project is to provide a literature review focusing on childrens cognitive, emotional and social development during the early years of life in the context of institutional daycare. Recent findings in developmental cognitive neuroscience will be considered, in order to identify possible characteristics of a healthy and developmentally-appropriate caring environment for children in day care settings, especially for the youngest ones below three years of age. Also, difficulties involved in a direct and often overly simplistic application of empirical results achieved in a particular scientific domain such as neuroscience, to a methodologically very different area, such as early childhood education, will be revealed, ways of a productive interdisciplinary collaboration will be discussed. The review article can become a significant part of the empirical foundation on which a concrete concept for an on-campus research-oriented childcare facility (to open its doors in 2011) will be created.
