Childhood Development News and Research

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UTHealth receives $3 million grant to provide specialized training to infant and toddler teachers

The Children's Learning Institute at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston has received a $3 million grant to teach the latest child development strategies to more than 850 infant and toddler specialists and teachers working in at-risk communities in the Lone Star State.

3 Feb 2020

Missing a key protein in the brain can cause autism-like behaviors

Scientists at Rutgers University-Newark have discovered that when a key protein needed to generate new brain cells during prenatal and early childhood development is missing, part of the brain goes haywire - causing an imbalance in its circuitry that can lead to long-term cognitive and movement behaviors characteristic of autism spectrum disorder.

9 Jan 2020

Screen time could be starting in infancy, says NIH study

Children nowadays might be risking their developmental health by excessive exposure to screen time. The average time that children stare at the idiot box, or other monitors, including a computer or mobile device, was almost an hour a day at 12 months of age, increasing to over 150 minutes (2.5 hours) by the age of 3 years.

25 Nov 2019

UTHealth receives $3.3 million to expand Developing Talkers literacy program

The Developing Talkers literacy program has been so successful that the U.S. Department of Education has awarded $3.3 million to The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) to expand it.

19 Nov 2019

New collaboration aims to advance early childhood development

Mount Sinai Kravis Children's Hospital announced today that it has partnered with the Bezos Family Foundation and Vroom, the Foundation's early learning program.

19 Nov 2019

Study of young boys and girls finds no gender difference in brain function or math ability

In 1992, Teen Talk Barbie was released with the controversial voice fragment, "Math class is hard." While the toy's release met with public backlash, this underlying assumption persists, propagating the myth that women do not thrive in science, technology, engineering and mathematic fields due to biological deficiencies in math aptitude.

10 Nov 2019

New York's first school-based health center improves vision for children

In its initial year of operation, New York's first school-based vision center at PS 188 in Coney Island provided prescription eyeglasses to nearly half of the 314 children who received routine eye exams-;with no out-of-pocket cost to their families.

24 Sep 2019

Genetic variants associated with adult obesity start playing a role during early childhood

Body mass index in infants, children and adults is influenced by different genetic factors that change as we age, according to a major new study.

5 Sep 2019

UV radiation exposure: Sun protection is important as athletes have elevated skin cancer risk

The dangers of ultraviolet radiation exposure, which most often comes from the sun, are well-known. Speaking at The Physiological Society's Extreme Environmental Physiology conference next week, W. Larry Kenney, Penn State University, will discuss how broad its effects can be, from premature aging to cancer, and how this can be influenced by different skin tones and the use of sunscreen.

30 Aug 2019

We still don't understand the full impact of prenatal opioid exposure on childhood development

While the opioid epidemic has been reported on extensively, data on the effects of prenatal opioid exposure on childhood development is still lacking.

29 Aug 2019

Teens with higher prenatal organophosphate exposure show altered brain activity

Organophosphates are among the most commonly used classes of pesticides in the United States, despite mounting evidence linking prenatal exposure to the chemicals to poorer cognition and behavior problems in children.

27 Aug 2019

New initiative to increase mothers' ability to provide milk for very low birth weight infants

Researchers at Boston Medical Center initiated a statewide quality improvement imitative to increase mothers' ability to produce and provide milk for very low birth weight infants at their discharge, as well reduce the racial/ethnic disparities in milk production and provision to these infants.

20 Jun 2019

UIC researchers examine early childhood programs’ response to new Illinois expulsion law

Illinois is one of only a few states to pass broad legislation to curtail expulsion from early childhood education and child care programs.

12 Jun 2019

Childhood adversity may increase risk of severe depression in later life

Children who face adversity are at a significantly greater risk for severe depression, research out of the University at Albany's School of Public Health finds.

30 May 2019

New case study provides definitive road map to bridge the gap between medicine and public health

Academic medical centers across the country and around the world are rapidly creating and expanding population health departments to bridge the worlds of clinical practice and public health. However, few frameworks exist to guide these efforts.

30 May 2019

First milk expression within 8 hours related to lactation success for very low-birth-weight infants

A study led by physician researchers at Boston Medical Center has shown that first milk expression within eight hours of giving birth is associated with the highest probability of mothers of very low-birth-weight infants being able to provide milk throughout hospitalization in the neonatal intensive care unit.

10 May 2019

Study finds no developmental differences in children conceived via ART

Parents with children conceived via IVF, IUI or using infertility medication can rest assured that treatment has no impact on childhood development.

8 May 2019

Children who live near major roadways may experience developmental delays

Young children living near to a major roadway may be at an increased risk for developmental delays, compared with children who live further away from such roads.

10 Apr 2019

California looks to lead nation in unraveling childhood trauma

Imagine identifying a toxin so potent it could rewire a child's brain and erode his immune system. A substance that, in high doses, tripled the risk of heart disease and lung cancer and reduced life expectancy by 20 years.

6 Mar 2019

Teenage motherhood may have multigenerational effects

The grandchildren of adolescent mothers have lower school readiness scores than their peers, according to a study published February 6, 2019 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Elizabeth Wall-Wieler of Stanford University, USA, and colleagues at the University of Manitoba.

7 Feb 2019