Data sources
Childhood is universal to our species
Learning Curve abstracts and synthesises a universal data model of child development.
24 sources of developmental research and data — one human truth. Learning Curve's careful analysis of international developmental frameworks, assessment research and normative data lets us surface and abstract a universal map of human development — a planetary synthesis producing a species-level data model of child development coherent across eras, cultures, and nations.
Learning Curve · The synthesis
The Universal Development Map
Not another source — the map they produce. 248 milestones organised into the pathways children grow along, each showing which of the 24 frameworks below recognise it, and when.
Explore the map →Click a continent to filter · Antarctica to reset · a pin to open a source.
HK FHS
OutcomeHong Kong · founded 1998 · 0mo – 6y
646 milestones mapped
Hong Kong's bilingual developmental surveillance system used across all Maternal and Child Health Centres for clinical observation 0-6yr.
Australia
OutcomeAustralia · founded 2023 · 0mo – 5y
276 milestones mapped
Australia's government-funded milestone guide for families, birth through five years.
CDC
OutcomeUnited States · founded 2023 · 0mo – 5y
159 milestones mapped
The US public-health milestone checklist, age-banded from birth through five years.
WHO GSED v2
OutcomeMultinational (LMIC) · founded 2018 · 0mo – 3y
155 milestones mapped
WHO's open-access developmental scale built on harmonised data from seven low- and middle-income countries.
CREDI
OutcomeMultinational (LMIC) · founded 2016 · 0mo – 3y
108 milestones mapped
Harvard's open-access caregiver-report tool for child development in low- and middle-income contexts.
Singapore
OutcomeSingapore · founded 2023 · 0mo – 6y
91 milestones mapped
Singapore's national child-health milestones, birth through six years.
NHS UK
OutcomeUnited Kingdom · founded 2023 · 0mo – 5y
71 milestones mapped
The UK NHS milestone guide for early childhood, birth through five years.
Nuri 2019
OpportunitySouth Korea · founded 2019 · 3y – 6y
59 milestones mapped
South Korea’s statutory 3–5 curriculum, measured by the opportunities offered — not by what each child achieves on a given day.
Denver II
OutcomeUnited States · founded 1967 · 0mo – 6y
40 milestones mapped
One of the longest-running developmental screens, age-banded from birth through six years.
EYFS
United Kingdom · founded 2008 · 0mo – 5y
32 milestones mapped
The statutory framework every English early-years setting follows for children from birth to age 5.
MOE 3-6
OpportunityChina · founded 2012 · 3y – 6y
32 milestones mapped
中国教育部为3-6岁幼儿园教师与家长发布的国家级学习与发展指南，覆盖健康、语言、社会、科学、艺术五大领域。 — China's national statutory guideline for kindergarten teachers and parents on the learning and development of children aged 3-6 across five domains: Health, Language, Social, Science, Art.
Bayley-4
OutcomeUnited States · founded 1969 · 0mo – 3.5y
30 milestones mapped
The clinical gold standard for assessing infant cognitive, motor, language, and socio-emotional development.
VASU 2022
OpportunityFinland · founded 2016 · 0mo – 6y
28 milestones mapped
Finland's national ECEC core curriculum — opportunity-provision pedagogy grounded in lapsen oma toimijuus (the child's own agency).
ASQ-3
United States · founded 1995 · 1mo – 5.5y
25 milestones mapped
Parent-completed developmental screen used in pediatric clinics across the US, validated 1 to 66 months.
KECG 2017
OpportunityHong Kong · founded 2017 · 3y – 6y
21 milestones mapped
Hong Kong's statutory kindergarten curriculum (3-6yr) covering 7 learning areas with bilingual Chinese-English surface and play-based pedagogy. 香港幼稚園教育課程指引 — 童亮，從遊戲中學習。
M-CHAT-R/F
Universal · founded 2001 · 16mo – 2.5y
11 milestones mapped
The 20-item parent-report screen for autism risk between 16 and 30 months, free for clinical use.
ECDI 2030
Multinational · founded 2018 · 2y – 4.9y
8 milestones mapped
UNICEF's SDG-aligned indicator for tracking on-track developmental progress in children aged 24 to 59 months.
WHO MGRS
Multinational (LMIC) · founded 1997 · 0mo – 5y
6 milestones mapped
The WHO's gross-motor milestone supplement from a five-country growth norming study.
Te Whāriki
OpportunityNew Zealand · founded 1996 · 0mo – 5y
5 milestones mapped
Aotearoa New Zealand's bicultural early childhood curriculum, woven across five Mana strands grounded in Te Ao Māori.
MELQO
Multinational · founded 2014 · 4y – 6y
4 milestones mapped
A pre-primary direct-child + caregiver-report assessment of literacy, language, numeracy, and social-emotional development. Co-developed by UNESCO, UNICEF, the World Bank, and Brookings to be culturally adaptable for low- and middle-income contexts.
Stanford SHQ
United States · founded 2018 · 0mo – 6y
4 milestones mapped
A longitudinal n=21,861 normative dataset of observable child behaviours from birth to age 5, organised across four developmental subscales.
AMI Practical Life
Multinational · founded 1907 · 3y – 6y
1 milestones mapped
The AMI-recognised practical-life curriculum sequence for Montessori Children's Houses, ages three to six.
Japan MHLW
Japan · founded 1965 · 0mo – 5y
Metadata registered
The statutory checklist used in Japan's national infant and child health checkup system.
IDB Bogotá
Colombia · founded 2010 · 0mo – 3y
Metadata registered
An IDB-funded Latin American norming dataset for early childhood development outside North American samples.