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Growing Up in Ireland (GUI) follows the development of two cohorts of children, one aged nine months at Wave 1 and one aged three years at Wave 1. This literature review, the second with relevance to the Infant Cohort, concentrates on three-year-old children who are the focus of Wave 2 of the data collection. Throughout the review the longitudinal nature of the study will be reflected in the choice of literature and research questions. The review, which was drafted before the second wave of quantitative data collection for the Infant Cohort began in 2010, helped to shape the selection of the questions and standardised measures that formed the child, parent and carer questionnaires and child assessments. Chapter 1 provides an overview of the background and objectives of Growing Up in Ireland and the conceptual framework guiding the study. Chapter 2 summarises some of what we know about children at three years of age, drawing on data from other similar nations but also highlighting what we currently know out three-year-old children in Ireland and the context in which they are growing up. Chapter 3 to 5 review the current literature on child development in the early pre-school period under the main categories of child outcome that are a focus of Growing Up in Ireland: physical health and development; social, emotional and behavioural development; and cognitive development. In each chapter, the discussion is organised according to the major research questions considered by the Study Team to be of particular significance. These research questions are illustrative of some of the many questions that can be examined using the …