During the REACH conference, we want to invite researchers to share knowledge, experiences, and maybe even datasets, with the final goal of taking Early Childhood research at Utrecht University to a higher level. To this end, we will also invite researchers who are presenting during our conference to join us in publishing a special issue about Early Development From a Multidisciplinary Perspective in the journal of Infant and Child Development (Wiley).

After being accepted for a presentation during the REACH conference, you can submit your article to the journal of Infant and Child Development (Wiley) until 28 February 2026. Do not forget to select the special issue when submitting your article.

Rationale and scope

Early development is a multidisciplinary topic, with researchers from different domains (e.g., pedagogy, clinical psychology, developmental psychology, language development, the medical field, etc.) approaching similar problems and subjects from different angles. Currently, multi- and interdisciplinary collaborations are becoming more common and important to our scientific practice. However, to be able to work multi- or interdisciplinary, it is necessary that researchers are able to understand early development from multiple angles. To support researchers in understanding early development research from multiple perspectives, we want to encourage inter- and multidisciplinary research in this field.

The journal of Infant and Child Development is calling for submissions of papers that approach a common topic in early development from a unique angle. Studies using a multi- or interdisciplinary approach are especially encouraged.

List of example topics

The topics about early development from a multidisciplinary perspective may include, but are not limited to:

• AI applications to study early development
• Chronic illnesses and disorders
• Critical periods
• Daycare
• Digital literacy
• Early developmental disorders
• Feeding
• Language development
• Motor development
• Neurodevelopment
• Parent-child relationship
• Play
• Prenatal development
• Sleep

We are especially looking for articles that combine multiple of these domains.