Language News and Research

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Language skills are essential to a child’s ability to communicate and develop. These skills enable children to engage with other people and learn from their surroundings and in the classroom.

Psychotherapist offering equine-assisted psychotherapy

Psychotherapists employ a variety of methods to aid in their patients’ recovery, ranging from conversation to medication to hypnosis to horses. Yes - horses!

21 Jul 2004

New measurement tool to help treat vitiligo

Superstar Michael Jackson and more than 40 million others who suffer from a de-pigmenting skin disease now have a better way to predict the effectiveness of treatment, thanks to a clinical measurement tool created by a University of British Columbia dermatology researcher.

21 Jul 2004

Stroke severity is the predominant predictor of discharge destination

An article in the July issue of the Archives of Neurology reports that increasing stroke severity, as measured by the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale, increases the likelihood that stroke patients who are treated with the rt-PA clot-dissolving drug will be discharged to rehabilitation or nursing homes, rather than to their own homes.

20 Jul 2004

HHS recognizes obesity as a major public health problem

The HHS has announced a new Medicare coverage policy that would remove barriers to covering anti-obesity interventions if scientific and medical evidence demonstrate their effectiveness in improving Medicare beneficiaries' health outcomes.

17 Jul 2004

Dementia often goes undiagnosed in primary care

Many older patients showing signs of dementia are not being diagnosed for the progressive brain disorder by their primary care physicians, an Oregon Health & Science University study has found.

16 Jul 2004

Teen birth rate hits record low and prevalence of overweight among children has increased

The well-being of America's children has shown strong gains in some areas but has declined in others, according to a yearly report by federal agencies compiling statistics on children.

16 Jul 2004

Teaching young children the relationships between spellings and sounds - or phonics - makes learning to read easier

By developing a computer model that mimics how children learn to read, two researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Stanford University track the development of a skilled reader, ultimately showing that phonics gives readers an edge, especially early on.

7 Jul 2004

People who have early stage Alzheimer's disease could be more capable of learning than previously thought

The promising studies suggest that some people with early cognitive impairment can still be taught to recall important information and to better perform daily tasks.

4 Jul 2004

About 40 percent of U.S. adults ages 40 to 74 — millions of whom are Hispanic or Latino — currently have pre-diabetes

About 40 percent of U.S. adults ages 40 to 74 — millions of whom are Hispanic or Latino — currently have pre-diabetes, a condition that raises a person's risk of developing type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and stroke.

29 Jun 2004

California Attorney General says emissions plan fails to adequately protect air, public health

"Exposure to mercury can cause severe health damage, particularly to pregnant women and young children," said Lockyer. "If implemented, these rules will protect the profits of polluters at the expense of the environment, people and public health."

29 Jun 2004

Eating fish during pregnancy produces children with better language and communication skills

A new study of children in Bristol has shown that women who ate fish regularly during pregnancy had children with better language and communication skills by the age of 18 months.

24 Jun 2004

Delayed brain development and its interaction with puberty key to learning difficulties

A Northwestern University study is the first to suggest that delayed brain development and its interaction with puberty may be key factors contributing to language-based learning disabilities such as dyslexia.

23 Jun 2004

Estrogen therapy may increase the risk for dementia

A new study in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) suggests that estrogen therapy does not decrease, but may increase, the risk for dementia in older, postmenopausal women.

22 Jun 2004

Biotech organization receives $1 million form Bill & Melinda Gates

The Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) today announced the launch of BIO Ventures for Global Health (BVGH), a new nonprofit organization that will work to enlist the biotechnology industry in the fight against neglected diseases. BVGH has received a $1 million start-up grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

17 Jun 2004

Second language that can be learned quickly and with amazing ease

The study, which is one of the first to look at how fast second-language words are learned and how the brain responds to words with increasing experience with the new language, was published June 13 in the on-line edition of the journal Nature Neuroscience.

15 Jun 2004

Being bilingual helps keep the brain sharper with age

Most will agree that two heads are better than one in solving problems. The same logic may be true for language and retaining cognitive processes as we age. Being fluent in two languages seems to prevent some of the cognitive decline seen in same-age monolingual speaking persons, according to the findings of a study appearing in this month’s journal of Psychology and Aging.

14 Jun 2004

New guidelines over the rights of lesbian, gay and bisexual partners over hospital visiting and involvement in treatment decisions

The guidance compiled by UNISON and the Royal College of Nursing provides detailed information on how healthcare workers can give confidence to lesbian, gay and bisexual service users and has been endorsed by the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy, College of Occupational Therapists, Royal College of Midwives and the Society of Radiographers.

14 Jun 2004

EU plan to reduce diseases caused by a polluted environment

The European Commission has launched an action plan to reduce diseases caused by a polluted environment. The plan would develop an EU system integrating information on the state of the environment, the ecosystem and human health.

11 Jun 2004

The Population Health Complex to improve the health of all New Zealanders

Research teams dedicated to improving the health of all New Zealanders now have a new home at The University of Auckland’s Population Health Complex. The new purpose-built complex is located at the University’s Tamaki Campus, which is distinguished by its collaborative, inter-disciplinary, and research-intensive profile.