Scientific and policy advances are putting early childhood development (ECD) at the center of efforts to improve human development. This study was undertaken to understand what knowledge and attitudinal barriers exist that 25 hinder the full-scale roll-out of services for the youngest children and their families. We used anthropological methods honed by the Frameworks Institute to plumb beliefs about early childhood development among members of the public and implementation and policy stakeholders, and compare those with the findings from ECD research. While members of the public and stakeholders agree on the importance of ECD, as demonstrated in other country settings, a major barrier to directing services to the youngest children is a perceptual tendency to 'age up'. That is, to consider learning and other important skills as being acquired in the pre-school rather than infancy period. Communication strategies that incorporate debate are needed to give full effect to the ECD and related policies, especially around the topics of prioritizing the youngest 40 children, physical punishment, child rights, and the pervasiveness Q5 of threats to ECD arising from poverty and disadvantage.