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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.

First Edition: August 27, 2012

Today's headlines include reports about this week's GOP convention, the politics of Medicare and abortion, and the latest health policy news from the states.

27 Aug 2012

Appeals Court upholds federal funding of human embryonic stem cell research

Family Research Council (FRC) expressed disappointment in today's Appeals Court ruling that upholds the Obama administration's efforts to use taxpayer funds for human embryonic stem cell research.

27 Aug 2012

Research roundup: Who do patients seek for primary care?; Treating kids with antipsychotics

n order to find out what kind of doctor patients were visiting for primary care service, researchers analyzed the frequency in which patients visited generalists and specialists in 1999 and 2007 by using a nationally representative sample of outpatient visits.

26 Aug 2012

Children may benefit from having older mothers

The children of older mothers may have improved health and development up to 5 years of age, say researchers in the British Medical Journal.

24 Aug 2012

Fit Brains achieves 75 million brain scores milestone

Fit Brains, a top online brain fitness platform, announces its 75 millionth brain game score achieved. And, in celebration, challenges users to play more mind strengthening games this September - it being Back-to-School and Healthy Aging Month - with a charitable incentive.

24 Aug 2012

ISSA questions IRS on health law insurance subsidies

House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., has raised questions about the implementation of a key part of the health law -- the tax treatment of subsidies for low-income people to purchase health insurance.

24 Aug 2012

Inappropriate prescriptions for the elderly prevalent in primary care

One in five prescriptions in primary care for the elderly is inappropriate, say the authors of a systematic review.

23 Aug 2012

Novel questionnaire reliably assesses antiepileptic adverse effects in children

The adverse effects of antiepileptic drugs can be reliably measured in children from across the epilepsy spectrum in clinical and research settings with the novel Pediatric Epilepsy Side Effects Questionnaire, say US scientists.

23 Aug 2012

New UCLA study pinpoints unique human patterns of gene activity in the brain

Human and chimp brains look anatomically similar because both evolved from the same ancestor millions of years ago. But where does the chimp brain end and the human brain begin? A new UCLA study pinpoints uniquely human patterns of gene activity in the brain that could shed light on how we evolved differently than our closest relative.

23 Aug 2012

SAMHSA announces 2012 Minority Fellowship Program grant

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration's (SAMHSA) Administrator Pamela S. Hyde today announced the award of a minority fellowship grant of up to $1.6 million to expand the behavioral health workforce in order to reduce health disparities and improve health care outcomes for traditionally underserved populations.

23 Aug 2012

State roundup: Restraining order issued in Mo. health exchange fight

A judge issued a temporary restraining order Tuesday against Missouri's secretary of state, Robin Carnahan, to prevent her from finalizing the language of a ballot question on health insurance exchanges. Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder, a Republican, sought the restraining order while a state court considers whether the language of the ballot question is biased, a claim leveled by Kinder and the state's top Republicans.

23 Aug 2012

Antiabortion language in the GOP draft platform draws attention to Akin flap

The Republican panel charged with drafting the party's platform included language that would essentially ban abortion. Mitt Romney's campaign says he supports "exceptions for rape, incest and to save the life of the mother."

23 Aug 2012

Romney vow to restore Medicare funding raises tough fiscal issues; GOP platform adds revamping of Medicare

In the short term, the Republican presidential candidate's promise to restore the Medicare cuts included in the health law would increase beneficiaries' costs. Meanwhile, the GOP draft platform embraces the Medicare changes advanced as part of Paul Ryan's House budget plan.

23 Aug 2012

New study: Reasoning training does alter brain connections

Intensive preparation for the Law School Admission Test (LSAT) actually changes the microscopic structure of the brain, physically bolstering the connections between areas of the brain important for reasoning, according to neuroscientists at the University of California, Berkeley.

23 Aug 2012

APSSLH and Maney collaborate to launch Speech, Language and Hearing journal

Starting in 2013 Maney will be collaborating with the Asia Pacific Society for the Study of Speech, Language and Hearing (APSSLH) to launch Speech, Language and Hearing. This is a significant development for both Maney and the Society.

23 Aug 2012

Abortion issue gets spotlight in swing states

Meanwhile, as the GOP prepares to include tough anti-abortion positions in its party platform, the Associated Press notes that voters in the presidential race will get a stark choice on social issues, including access to birth control and abortion rights.

22 Aug 2012

Healthcare announces important changes to the U.S. product label for Optison

GE Healthcare today announced important changes to the U.S. product label for Optison (Perflutren Protein-Type A Microspheres Injectable Suspension, USP), a contrast agent that may improve the visualization of the left ventricular border - an area of the heart that is critical to see in order to diagnose certain heart diseases such as hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.

22 Aug 2012

New tools can help assess culturally competent and health-literate care

The latest additions to a set of surveys for evaluating patient experiences with medical care provide new tools for assessing culturally competent and health-literate care, according to a special September supplement to Medical Care.

21 Aug 2012

Study shows significant benefits of temporal training on cognitive function in the elderly

Research has found that declines in temporal information processing (TIP), the rate at which auditory information is processed, underlies the progressive loss of function across multiple cognitive systems in the elderly, including new learning, memory, perception, attention, thinking, motor control, problem solving, and concept formation. In a new study, scientists have found that elderly subjects who underwent temporal training improved not only the rate at which they processed auditory information, but also in other cognitive areas.

21 Aug 2012

Pulvinar regulates communication between clusters of brain cells

A mysterious region deep in the human brain could be where we sort through the onslaught of stimuli from the outside world and focus on the information most important to our behavior and survival, Princeton University researchers have found.

18 Aug 2012