Child Development Centres (CDCs) have been established within government medicalcollege tertiary hospitals across Bangladesh. Services entail a parent–professional partnership in a child and family friendly environment with a focus on assessment, diagnosis, and management of a range of neurodevelopmental disorders in children and adolescents 0–16 years of age. Services are provided by a multidisciplinary team of professionals (child health physician, child psychologist, and developmental therapist) who emphasize quality of services over the numbers of children seen. Methods In 2008, Dhaka Shishu (Children’s) Hospital was given the mandate by the government to conceptualize, train, and monitor CDCs nationwide. Here, we describe the rationale and processes for the establishment of the national network of CDCs and discuss lessons learned on scaling up early childhood development services in a low resource setting.