ABSTRACT
This chapter explains the issues of knowledge: how it is created and used by various parties with an interest in promoting children's wellbeing. It explains how the scientist-practitioner model, developmentally appropriate practice and applied developmental science variously act as guides for attempting to put theoretical knowledge into practice. The chapter also states that practice can feed back into theory. However, from a more postmodern perspective, the chapter also explains how differences in professional cultures can create a barrier to effective translation of theory and research into policy and practice with children, within the complexities of the real world. In view of the billions of dollars spent worldwide in the field of child development, there is a growing demand to see how the knowledge created is translated into practice. Finally the KidsMatter case study, have illustrated some principles of translational research, implementation science and quality assurance, whereby a theoretically based programme is applied to the real world as effectively as possible.
