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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.

Preschool attendance significantly improves school readiness in children

Children who attend preschool before starting school are significantly more likely to arrive ready to learn, according to a major Curtin University study of more than 123,000 Western Australian children.

28 Jul 2026

Eye contact synchronizes brainwaves to help infants learn language

Infants use eye contact with speakers to work out what to pay attention to and synchronize their brainwaves, helping them learn language, scientists in Cambridge and Singapore have shown.

28 Jul 2026

Integrated intervention improves growth and neurodevelopment in Small-for-Gestational Age infants

A randomized clinical trial conducted in India by Indian and Norwegian researchers demonstrates that an integrated intervention package improves growth and neurodevelopment in babies born to small, so-called Small-for-Gestational Age (SGA) infants.

28 Jul 2026

UC Davis researcher receives grant to study perceived cognitive aging

University of California, Davis Professor of Neurology Sarah Tomaszewski Farias has been awarded a $3.3 million five-year grant from The National Institute on Aging to study if cultural differences affect how people perceive cognitive changes as they age.

27 Jul 2026

Advancing Drug Safety Assessment With AI, Predictive Modeling, and Human-Relevant Data

James McDonagh discusses how AI and machine learning are transforming drug discovery and safety assessment, enhancing toxicology and decision-making processes.

27 Jul 2026

AI mental health chatbots feel empathetic, but safety evidence still lags

Immune dysregulation may contribute to depression, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and anxiety through chronic inflammation, altered neuroimmune signaling, genetic susceptibility, and stress-related epigenetic changes. Evidence also suggests that biologically defined patient subgroups may benefit from more precise, immune-informed approaches to diagnosis and treatment.

27 Jul 2026

YouTube’s health content rewards attention-grabbing videos over reliable medical information

Researchers analyzed 3,958 Korean-language medical YouTube videos and found that clickbait-heavy content attracted more views, likes, and comments. Higher-quality videos from medical professionals and public institutions often received less attention, highlighting a visibility gap in online health information.

27 Jul 2026

Evidence shows artificial sweeteners cannot be judged as a single group

This narrative review found that non-nutritive artificial sweeteners have compound-specific and context-dependent associations with gut microbiota, metabolism, and health-related outcomes. Evidence does not support treating all sweeteners as uniformly harmful or safe, with human findings often limited or inconsistent.

23 Jul 2026

Human experts remain essential for checking clinical AI outputs

In a Rwanda-based evaluation, LLM judges produced consistent and far cheaper ratings of clinical AI responses but matched local clinician ratings on only a minority of assessment criteria. They consistently missed potential demographic bias, indicating that human expert evaluation remains important despite AI’s potential role in initial screening.

21 Jul 2026

Salk neuroscientists identify traveling brain waves as a computational engine

Your brain has something surprising in common with the ocean: waves! Electrical activity washes over the brain's surface, creating what are called traveling brain waves or neural traveling waves.

21 Jul 2026

Tailored gene therapy dramatically reduces childhood epilepsy seizures in trial

SCN2A‑related developmental epileptic encephalopathy (DEE) is a rare, severe form of childhood epilepsy and one of the most common causes of monogenic autism.

21 Jul 2026

New tool detects hidden biases in medical training data

Researchers have built a tool to uncover hidden issues in the massive datasets used to train medical AI.

20 Jul 2026

Musical Museum helps reduce isolation among dementia patients

Growing evidence suggests lifelong learning can help combat cognitive decline, but many older adults with dementia avoid traditional classes for fear of not keeping up.

20 Jul 2026

COVID lockdown babies show language strengths at age four

Research from the BICYCLE study shows 4-year-olds born in lockdown excel in language but face challenges in executive function, indicating a need for support.

17 Jul 2026

Maternal diets high in UPFs may influence children’s health years later

A narrative review of 84 publications links higher ultra-processed food intake during pregnancy and early childhood with poorer diet quality, maternal complications, childhood obesity, and potential immune, metabolic, and neurodevelopmental effects. The authors identify possible microbiome and biopsychosocial pathways but emphasize that the predominantly observational evidence cannot establish causality.

17 Jul 2026

Brain signals explain speech communication differences in autistic children

Why do some children with autism communicate more easily than others, even when they hear the same words?

16 Jul 2026

Evidence does not support universal vitamin D supplementation to prevent preterm birth

Announcing a new article publication in BIO Integration. Preterm birth complications are among leading causes of mortality in neonates and children under 5 years of age worldwide.

15 Jul 2026

AI speech-to-text needs stronger oversight in healthcare, study finds

AI speech-to-text had a moment in the spotlight on the medical drama series, "The Pitt," just earlier this year.

14 Jul 2026

Lockdown-born children show lower executive function at school age

Children born during the first COVID-19 lockdown in England had lower reported levels of executive function - crucial skills involved in making plans, solving problems and adapting to new situations - suggest the findings of a study published online in the Archives of Disease in Childhood.

14 Jul 2026

Most pregnant people fail to achieve recommended seatbelt placement

Nearly nine in 10 pregnant participants in a study led by biomedical engineers at UBC did not achieve recommended seatbelt placement, even after instruction and hands-on guidance.

14 Jul 2026