Resources
Resources from the Lab
The list below details course offerings, webinars, and recent publications from the Developmental Interactions Lab. Click through to access each resource.
2024-2025 Semester Update:
• HDE 101: Developmental Insights: Connecting Human Development Throughlines Across Research and PracticeInstructors: Junlei Li, Stephanie Jones, Dana McCoy
• H210V 1: Empowering Human Relationships Across Developmental Contexts
Junlei Li (Enrollment with professor permission, through petition.)
Courses related to the Simple Interactions Tool and developmental relationships are accessible at the Harvard Graduate School of Education for Fall, J-Term, and Spring 1 semesters.
Read course descriptions and details here.
Topics: Communication, Families, Research
December 2023
Publication Date: April 24, 2024
This publication by the Office of Planning, Research & Evaluation (an Office of the Administration for Children & Families) explores how principles of human connection and co-regulation can enhance support for fathers in human services. It examines opportunities to apply these concepts across six key relationships in fathers’ lives, aiming to strengthen their roles and well-being.
Publication Date: September 2023
“Early Relational Health: A Review of Research, Principles, and Perspectives,” by early childhood researchers Dr. Junlei Li and Thelma Ramirez of the Harvard Graduate School of Education, connects the science behind ERH with principles for action for parents, caregivers, practitioners, and policymakers. Based on extensive interviews with researchers, practitioners, and parent leaders, the authors envision the interconnected relational needs, capacities, and support systems among babies, toddlers, parents, caregivers, and the broader community, including the healthcare, early care, and education communities, neighbors, and extended family.
February 24, 2022
Description: In the third session of a series on Perspectives in Early Relational Health (ERH), David Willis, MD, Senior Fellow at the Center for the Study of Social Policy, speaks with Dr. Junlei Li, Co-Chair, Human Development and Education Program and Saul Zaentz Senior Lecturer in Early Childhood Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, about the foundations of emotional connection. They discuss the mutuality, or bi-directionality, of early relationships and what these healthy early relationships can look like across cultures and contexts. Dr. Li discusses the idea of promoting the universality of early relationships, rather than uniformity in what these healthy relationships look like. Finally, they re-imagine what systems could look like if we centered and promoted Early Relational Health.
Published 2024
Read this Spotlight and Feature from The Burke Foundation on the recent publication from our Lab Director, Dr. Junlei Li and Research Manager Thelma Ramirez, M.Ed.
“Early Relational Health is universally important. All children need positive, healthy experiences to thrive. The capacity of families and communities to support and maintain safe, stable, nurturing relationships are biological necessities. Kids must feel safe and connected not only to buffer adversity but also to build the skills needed to be resilient.”
– Dr. Andrew Garner, primary care pediatrician, clinical professor, Case Western Reserve University