Children's Health News

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Read the latest research in child development including how newborns learn to think, how sleep patterns emerge, problems with toddlers and more.

Total news: 48
Last news: August 30, 2007 04:00:00

Child psychology and medical research. From how massage can help infants cry less, to the effect of chemical pollution on children, read the latest child psychology news here.

Total news: 29
Last news: August 31, 2007 04:00:00

The standard practice of tracking only female life histories leads to mistaken conclusions about the forces that shape human evolution, according to a new article. The reason is that mens and womens age patterns of fertility differ in important ways. Scientists show that traditional mating patterns make men the key to explaining away the "wall of death," an enduring puzzle in the study of human longevity. - [Read more]

A new study suggests that implementing 5 breastfeeding-friendly practices in hospitals following birth can significantly improve long-term breastfeeding success. Nearly two-thirds of mothers who engaged in all 5 supportive practices were still breastfeeding 4 months after going home. - [Read more]

The decreased use of cocaine in the United States over the last 20 years mostly occurred among the highly educated, while cocaine use among non-high school graduates remained constant. - [Read more]

When it comes to recognizing faces, children with autism arent as readily adaptable as are normal kids, according to a new article. Thats despite the fact that kids with autism can identify similarities among related faces just as well as other children, the researchers found. - [Read more]

Mothers who cradle their baby to their right hand side are displaying signs of extreme stress, a new study suggests. Although most mums feel stressed in the early stages of their babys life, the study suggests their baby cradling habits are a key indicator of whether this stress could become overwhelming and lead to depression. - [Read more]

A six year comparison of almost 35,000 children in England has shown that there has been no change in developmental levels of pupils entering primary school in this period, despite the introduction of several new early years initiatives over the past decade, new research reveals. Although there have been massive changes in early years education in the UK in the last few years, childrens development and skills at the start of school are no different now than they were before the introduction of the early childhood curriculum, the Sure Start programme, free nursery education for all three year olds and the more recent introduction of the Childrens Act 2002 and the Every Child Matters initiative. - [Read more]

Psychologists have been assessing how well various study strategies produce long-term learning, and it appears that some strategies really do work much better than others. Surprisingly "massing" all the study on a single topic into a single session reduces long-term retention. Its better to leave it alone for a while and then return to it. - [Read more]

One of the most distinctive characteristics of humans is probably one you dont think of very often -- the capacity to learn based merely on what someone tells you. Researchers are attempting to discover when when we become capable of revising our mental representations of objects or situations based solely on what someone tells us. - [Read more]

A geriatrician who has studied in China predicts that the countrys population control program will create a new social problem -- fewer family members to care for an aging society. The researcher says that by 2030, 336 million Chinese will be over the age of 60. If the burden of care for senior citizens shifts from family to facilities, such as nursing homes, the country would be unprepared. - [Read more]

Do you remember exactly where you were when you learned of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks? Your answer is probably yes, and researchers are beginning to understand why we remember events that carry negative emotional weight. Her research shows that whether an event is pleasurable or aversive seems to be a critical determinant of the accuracy with which the event is remembered, with negative events being remembered in greater detail than positive ones. - [Read more]

Obesity rates in the US continue to climb dramatically, with Mississippi at the top of the list for adults, and DC for young people. Adult obesity rates rose in 31 states last year, according to a new report. Twenty-two states experienced an increase for the second year in a row; no states decreased. - [Read more]

More research is emerging that sheds light on a serious problem affecting student-athletes nationwide: the number of children and teens who are considered obese is rising dramatically. According to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, obesity raises the risk of cardiovascular disease and other health problems, and also increases the likelihood of developing obstructive sleep apnea. OSA causes a child or teen to stop breathing during sleep and can disturb his or her sleep several times on any given night. - [Read more]

Does a summertime baby mean a myopic child? If your child is born in the winter or fall, it will have better long-range eyesight throughout its lifetime and less chance of requiring thick corrective glasses, predicts a scientist studying the correlation between birth month the vision problems. According to their study of 300,000 young adults, babies born in June and July had a 24% greater chance of becoming severely myopic than those born in December and January. The investigators say that this evidence is likely applicable to babies born anywhere in the world. - [Read more]

Boys with difficulty reading actually respond better to female teachers, according to a new Canadian study. Research shows that boys develop higher positive self-perceptions as readers when they worked with female research assistants compared to working with male research assistants. - [Read more]

Providing family therapy to seriously ill children and their families consistently enhances medical outcomes and increases the overall mental health for adolescent patients, family and treatment professionals, Texas Tech Marriage and Family Therapy faculty found through a unique partnership integrating family counseling as part of medical treatment. - [Read more]

In the first study of its kind, researchers have discovered that in autistic individuals, connections between brain cells may be deficient within single regions, and not just between regions, as was previously believed. This new study supports the idea that the network as a whole is broken, but shows the disconnection in long-range connectivity may actually start within individual brain regions, known as local connectivity. - [Read more]

Restless legs syndrome is a common problem in children 8 years of age and older in the United States and the United Kingdom, according to a new report. Nearly 2 percent of children aged 8 to 17 are affected, and a significant proportion of those experience moderate to severe symptoms, including sleep disturbance and negative moods. - [Read more]

In one of the first studies to focus on the relationship between racial discrimination and health risk behaviors, researchers found African-Americans experiencing racial discrimination were more likely to report current tobacco use or recent alcohol consumption and lifetime use of marijuana and cocaine. - [Read more]

In a study of children and adolescents with hypertension, only about one in four had been previously diagnosed with the condition. Hypertension, with an estimated prevalence of between 2 percent and 5 percent, is a common chronic disease in children and is increasing in prevalence with the pediatric obesity epidemic. - [Read more]

Regardless of the language we speak, most adults raise their voices to elicit an infants attention and talk at a much slower rate to communicate effectively. In the scientific community this baby talk is termed "infant-directed speech." This is the first study to show that adult listeners in an indigenous, non-industrialized, and nonliterate culture can easily tell the difference between baby talk and normal adult directed speech. - [Read more]