From September 27 – 29, 2018 we held the Crossing the borders conference at the University of Potsdam. It was a 3-day conference about the interplay of language, cognition, and the brain in early human development. We brought together researchers from psychology, linguistics, and developmental neuroscience. The program included keynote talks from Roberta Golinkoff (US), Judit Gervain (FR), Larissa Samuelson (UK), Victoria Southgate (DK) and Tobias Grossmann (US), oral presentations and poster sessions, and a science slam, providing early-career researchers in the field of infant and child development with ample opportunities to present their work.