Norms are expected patterns for a given metric, in this case child development. Specifically, norms for child development provide benchmarks for comparing children’s development at a population level with other populations and at a programmatic level, with peers who had different interventions or experiences.

The GSED Norms & Standards Study will develop norms across the 16 sites in 12 countries. UCSF is currently the studies only the North American site and will be enrolling children from the San Francisco Bay Area. The data collected will help set global standards for monitoring child development and support informed decision-making by policy makers and researchers.