Almost half of depression in adults starts in adolesence   PhysOrg - February 29, 2012
A new study by research psychologists at Bangor and Oxford Universities show that half of adults who experience clinical depression had their first episode start in adolescence. In fact, the most common age to see the start of depression is between 13-15 years-old.

Child Abuse Leaves Mark on Brain   Live Science - February 14, 2012
Childhood abuse and maltreatment can shrink important parts of the brain, a new study of adults suggests. Reduced brain volume in parts of the hippocampus could help to explain why childhood problems often lead to later psychiatric disorders, such as depression, drug addiction and other mental health problems, the researchers say. This link could help researchers find better ways to treat survivors of childhood abuse.

Study: Babies try lip-reading in learning to talk   PhysOrg - January 17, 2012
Babies don't learn to talk just from hearing sounds. New research suggests they're lip-readers too.

New gene discovery unlocks mystery to epilepsy in infants   PhysOrg - January 17, 2012
A team of Australian researchers has come a step closer to unlocking a mystery that causes epileptic seizures in babies. Benign familial infantile epilepsy (BFIE) has been recognizied for some time as infantile seizures, without fever, that run in families but the cause has so far eluded researchers.

Autistic brains develop more slowly than healthy brains: study   PhysOrg - October 20, 2011
Researchers at UCLA have found a possible explanation for why autistic children act and think differently than their peers. For the first time, they've shown that the connections between brain regions that are important for language and social skills grow much more slowly in boys with autism than in non-autistic children.

Autistic facial characteristics identified   PhysOrg - October 20, 2011
The face and brain develop in coordination, with each influencing the other, beginning in the embryo and continuing through adolescence. Now, University of Missouri researchers have found distinct differences between the facial characteristics of children with autism compared to those of typically developing children. This knowledge could help researchers understand the origins of autism.

A child's memory in military time   PhysOrg - October 20, 2011
A 1-year-old child can hold onto a memory for at most a week or two, and canÕt understand the passage of time until reaching school age, Harvard child development specialists said at a seminar Tuesday aimed at military veterans and members of the armed services.

Children's Mental Health Issues are a Growing Cause of ER Visits   Live Science - October 14, 2011
The number of emergency room visits due to mental health problems of children and young adults is on the rise, according to a new study. Researchers analyzed data from 279 million visits kids made to emergency rooms around the country spanning 1999 through 2007. Over the eight-year period, the percentage of those visits attributable to psychiatric complaints rose from 2.4 percent to 3 percent. While seemingly small, such an increase translates to hundreds of thousands of additional psychiatry-related ER visits per year, the study's authors wrote. The largest rise was seen among children who have no health insurance or public health insurance.

Stone-age toddlers had art lessons, study says   Guardian - September 30, 2011
Stone age toddlers may have attended a form of prehistoric nursery where they were encouraged to develop their creative skills in cave art, say archaeologists. Research indicates young children expressed themselves in an ancient form of finger-painting. And, just as in modern homes, their early efforts were given pride of place on the living room wall.

What do infants remember when they forget?   PhysOrg - September 28, 2011
Six-month-old babies are severely limited in what they can remember about the objects they see in the world; if you hide several objects from an infant, they will only remember one of those objects with any detail.

Parents' Stress Alters Kids' DNA   Live Science - September 1, 2011
Stressed-out parents make lasting impressions on their kids, according to a new study that finds the negative experience causes changes to a child's genes that are still present in their teenage years. The finding reveals a mechanism by which childhood experiences impact a person's biology, the researchers said.

Children of depressed mothers have a different brain   PhysOrg - August 16, 2011
Scientists worked with ten year old children whose mothers exhibited symptoms of depression throughout their lives, and discovered that the children's amygdala, a part of the brain linked to emotional responses, was enlarged. Similar changes, but of greater magnitude, have been found in the brains of adoptees initially raised in orphanages. Personalized attention to children's needs may be the key factor.

Babies Are Capable of Complex Reasoning   Live Science - May 26, 2011

Babies are sophisticated mini-statisticians, a new study finds, capable of making judgments about the probability of an event they've never seen before. Using a computer model, researchers were able to accurately predict what a baby would know about a particular event if given certain information. The model may be useful in engineering artificial intelligence that reacts appropriately to the world, said study researcher Josh Tenenbaum, a cognitive scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Mutant gene linked to ADHD   PhysOrg - April 18, 2011
Research identifies the gene GIT1 and the fact that a mutation changing just one letter in the code affects a brain protein that works to balance inhibition and excitability ...

  Study finds first direct evidence that ADHD is a genetic disorder   PhysOrg - September 30, 2010
The study also found significant overlap between these segments, known as copy number variants (CNVs), and genetic variants implicated in autism and schizophrenia, proving strong evidence that ADHD is a neurodevelopmental disorder - in other words, that the brains of children with the disorder differ from those of other children.

Kids' Mental Number Lines Reveal Math Memory   Live Science - September 11, 2010
Kids who visualize numbers as an evenly spaced line are better at remembering the digits than kids who scrunch up the numbers in their heads, according to a new study. The findings, published in the journal Psychological Science, suggest the way kids visualize numbers reflects their understanding of what the symbols mean.

Gene scan finds link across array of childhood brain disorders   PhysOrg - August 22, 2010

Babies Are Born to Dance   Live Science - March 15, 2010

A better genetic test for autism   PhysOrg - March 15, 2010

If children won't go to school   PhysOrg - February 11, 2010

New clue why autistic people don't want hugs   PhysOrg - February 11, 2010

Vaccine-Autism Link Had Long, Inaccurate History   Live Science - February 11, 2010

New study confirms link between advanced maternal age and autism   PhysOrg - February 8, 2010

Want Passionate Kids? Leave 'em Alone   Live Science - February 9, 2010

3 Simple Steps Can Cut Childhood Obesity   Live Science - February 8, 2010

Children Raised by Lesbians Do Just Fine, Studies Show   Live Science - February 8, 2010

Rate of Autism Disorders Climbs to One Percent Among 8-Year-Olds   Science Daily - December 20, 2009

The Queen and I: How autistic brain distinguishes oneself from others   PhysOrg - December 14, 2009

Study Reveals Why Infants Can't Walk   Live Science - December 14, 2009

Old math reveals new thinking in children's cognitive development   PhysOrg - December 11, 2009

Scientists discover first evidence of brain rewiring in children   PhysOrg - December 10, 2009

Birth order affects cooperation in later life   PhysOrg - December 9, 2009

Personalized vaccines could protect all children   New Scientist - December 7, 2009

Gene absence makes the kid grow rounder   New Scientist - December 7, 2009

The secret to getting toddlers to eat Š picture books   Telegraph.co.uk - December 3, 2009

Down Syndrome becoming more prevalent in the U.S.   PhysOrg - December 2, 2009

We May Be Born With an Urge to Help   New York Times - December 1, 2009

Why Kids Ask Why   Live Science - November 23, 2009

Study uses brain scans to discover how children 'read' faces   PhysOrg - November 20, 2009

Cognitive Dysfunction Reversed in Mouse Model of Down Syndrome   Science Daily - November 19, 2009

Largest gene study of childhood IBD identifies 5 new genes   PhysOrg - November 15, 2009

Even Babies Have "Accents," Crying Study Finds   National Geographic - November 5, 2009

Babies' language learning starts from the womb   PhysOrg - November 5, 2009
Babble Of Baby Reveals Language Skills   PhysOrg - November 3, 2009

The importance of grandmothers in the lives of their grandchildren   PhysOrg - October 29, 2009

One Shot Of Gene Therapy, And Children With Congenital Blindness Can Now See   Science Daily - October 26, 2009

When Does Consciousness Arise in Human Babies?   Scientific American - September 3, 2009

How do we know that a newly born and healthy infant is conscious?

  North Korea Runs "Train of Love" for Remote Schoolkids   National Geographic - August 5, 2009
Reportedly running since 1978, a special passenger train takes children from one of North Korea's northernmost provinces on an hour-long ride to and from school. Video.

Fetal Memories? Not So Fast   Live Science - July 21, 2009

A new Dutch study that examined how 95 fetuses responded to in-utero vibrations
has concluded that "the unborn may have memories by the 30th week of pregnancy"
or at least that's how the story is being widely reported.

Screening for childhood depressive symptoms could start in second grade   PhysOrg - July 21, 2009
New research indicates that screening children for symptoms of depression, the most common mental health disorder in the United States, can begin a lot earlier than previously thought, as early as the second grade.

New research shows babies have a handle on the meaning of different dog barks   PhysOrg - July 20, 2009
ew research shows babies have a handle on the meaning of different dog barks - despite little or no previous exposure to dogs.

Mom's Diet Can Change Unborn Baby's Genetics   Live Science - April 13, 2009 <> Because the genes and cellular mechanisms involved in the study are very similar to those in humans, researchers think the study is relevant to us.

Bilingual Babies Get Head Start -- Before They Can Talk   National Geographic - April 13, 2009
Even before they can babble a single word, babies in bilingual households may get a head start in life, according to a team of scientists in Italy. Rather than confusing babies, hearing more than one language gives newborns a mental boost, according to the new study, which tested seven-month-old infants.

Baby's first dreams: Research reveals sleep cycles in early fetus   PhysOrg - April 13, 2009

After about seven months growing in the womb, a human fetus spends most of its time asleep. Its brain cycles back and forth between the frenzied activity of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep and the quiet resting state of non-REM sleep. But whether the brains of younger, immature fetuses cycle with sleep or are simply inactive has remained a mystery, until now.

Spirituality, Not Religion, Makes Kids Happy   Live Science - January 9, 2009
The link between spirituality and happiness is pretty well-established for teens and adults. More spirituality brings more happiness. Now a study has reached into the younger set, finding the same link in "tweens" and in kids in middle childhood. Specifically, the study shows that children who feel that their lives have meaning and value and who develop deep, quality relationships - both measures of spirituality, the researchers claim - are happier.

Why Holding Kids Back in School Is Bad Live Science - August 29, 2008
This goes to maturity, size, and more.

Meditation helps kids with ADHD News in Science - November 30, 2007

Semi-identical twins discovered BBC - March 27, 2007
Scientists have revealed details of the world's only known case of "semi-identical" twins. The twins are identical on their mother's side, but share only half their genes on their father's side.

Infants are able to detect the 'impossible objects' at early age EurekAlert - March 20, 2007

..."impossible" objects and scenes are pictures or illusions of three-dimensional images that do not make any visual sense.

Feeling No Pain: New Form of Rare Gene Disorder Decoded National Geographic - December 13, 2006
Megan actually has a rare genetic disorder that renders her insensitive to pain. And although she is a fictional character, her problem is real.

Scientists show that children think like scientists PhysOrg - March 29, 2006
Even preschoolers approach the world much like scientists: They are convinced that perplexing and unpredictable events can be explained, according to an MIT brain researcher's study in the April issue of Child Development.

How babies do maths at 7 months BBC - February 15, 2006
Babies have a rudimentary grasp of maths long before they can walk or talk, according to new research. By the age of seven months infants have an abstract sense of numbers and are able to match the number of voices they hear with the number of faces they see.

Babies Recognize Faces Better Than Adults National Geographic - May 22, 2005
Human babies start out with the ability to recognize a wide range of faces, even among races or species different from their own, according to a new study. The researchers focused on face processing - the ability to recognize and categorize faces, determine identity and gender, and read emotions. Their findings suggest that, in humans, this skill is a case of "use it or lose it."

It's not just the hormones ... Guardian - March 3, 2005
Scientists are discovering the real reasons for the hell of adolescence, writes Vivienne Parry

Children create new sign language BBC - September 2004
A new sign language created over the last 30 years by deaf children in Nicaragua has given experts a unique insight into how languages evolve.

Newborns prefer to look at beautiful faces BBC - September 6, 2004
Newborn babies - just like adults - prefer to look at an attractive face, new research in the UK has shown. The University of Exeter study reveals that infants are born with in-built preferences which help them to make sense of their new environment. Newborns were shown two images side by side, one showing an attractive face and the other a less attractive one.

Researchers Find Brain Receptors Linked to Mother-Infant Bonding Scientific American - July 2004
Morphine acts on a part of the brain known as the opioid system, which is linked to pain, pleasure and addictive behaviors. The results of a mouse study published in today's issue of the journal Science suggest that the same brain circuitry plays a role in mother-infant bonding.

Brain Activity Abnormal In Children With Delayed Speech Science Daily - December 20, 2003
Children with unusually delayed speech tend to listen with the right side of the brain rather than the left side of the brain