news 2020

Storytelling is the most effective way of teaching school children about evolution, say researchers at the Milner Centre for Evolution. Last updated on Tuesday 8 December 2020 A randomised controlled trial found that children learn about evolution more effectively when engaged through stories read by the teacher, than through doing tasks to demonstrate the same concept.

New parents often expect their baby to start sleeping through the night around the time they reach six months of age. But according to a new study led by Professor Marie-Hélène Pennestri, parents should view sleep consolidation as a process, instead of a milestone to be achieved at a specific age. Tracking 44 infants over a period of two weeks, she found that sleeping patterns vary greatly - not only for different babies, but also night to night for the same baby.

Tutoring programmes and storybooks can help improve children's attainment in maths, according to a new evidence review led by UCL researchers. The evidence review, published today by the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) and written by a team from the UCL Institute of Education, the University of Brighton, Loughborough University and Ulster University, synthesises the best international evidence about the teaching and learning mathematics for children in Early Years and Key Stage 1 (between the ages of 3 and 7).

Children of the 90s, a health study based at the University of Bristol, has today [10 November] published results from a study testing almost 5,000 participants for COVID-19 antibodies. The results found 4.3 per cent reported a positive result, of which a quarter were asymptomatic and did not report any symptoms in previous questionnaires.

Children are more likely to introduce violent themes into their pretend play, such as imaginary fighting or killing, if they are with playmates whom peers consider bad-tempered, new research suggests. For some children, this could actually be a way of developing their social and emotional skills Zhen Rao Academics from the University of Cambridge believe that the tendency for children to introduce aggressive themes in these situations - which seems to happen whether or not they are personally easy to anger - may be because they are 'rehearsing' strategies to cope with hot-headed friends.

The common cuckoo is known for its deceitful nesting behaviour - by laying eggs in the nests of other bird species, it fools host parents into rearing cuckoo chicks alongside their own. While cuckoos mimic their host's eggs, new research has revealed that a group of parasitic finch species in Africa have evolved to mimic their host's chicks - and with astonishing accuracy.

Image by Jürgen Eick from Pixabay.com Parental influence has a far greater impact on a child's attainment in mathematics than any factor related to school environment, a new study published today from the University of Sussex reveals. Parents' own academic ability and their relationship with their child are much stronger indicators of a pupil's likely success with the subject than a pupil's feelings towards their school or individual teachers, new research by psychologists at the University of Sussex indicates.

New CMU study shows extraneous images draw attention from text, reducing comprehension in beginning readers Reading is the gateway for learning, but one-third of elementary school students in the United States do not read at grade level. Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University are exploring how the design of reading materials affects literacy development.

Machine learning can help public health officials identify children most at risk of lead poisoning, enabling them to concentrate their limited resources on preventing poisonings rather than remediating homes only after a child suffers elevated blood lead levels, a new study shows.

Children growing up in families with expensive homes have fewer emotional and behavioural problems, finds new research led by the UCL Centre for Longitudinal Studies (CLS) based at the UCL Social Research Institute. The study, published today in Child Development, is one of the first to look at the links between family wealth and children's development.

Children in Wales have some of the lowest levels of wellbeing among children across 35 countries, a team of Cardiff University researchers has found. The team, from the Wales Institute of Social and Economic Research and Data (WISERD), surveyed over 2,600 children from across Wales about their own happiness, satisfaction and psychological wellbeing, as well as how respected they feel and their inclusion in decision-making processes.

A new research project will look at how touchscreens affect the way two and three year olds play and what impact this has on children's development. Leading the study is Dr Elena Hoicka , a senior lecturer in Psychology at the University of Bristol, whose research focus is on the role of creative play in early cognitive development.

Parents who are undocumented immigrants are more likely than documented parents to teach mistrust to their children and to be wary of interactions with law enforcement personnel and non-Latinos, say University of Michigan researchers. These messages, in turn, can lead to higher levels of depression among those adolescents, they say.

Lockdown has also had a disproportionately negative impact on parents, especially mothers, with a majority noting that they have been carrying out more housework and care New research from the University of Kent and the University of Birmingham has found that mass homeworking during the COVID-19 lockdown has presented significant challenges for parents, particularly mothers, but has also changed the way that many people intend to work in the future.

Carnegie Mellon University researchers developed a new type of mixed-reality platform that can help children learn basic scientific concepts while experimenting in the physical world with the help of an AI agent. Makerspaces and STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art and math) learning spaces are becoming common fixtures in schools, libraries and museums.

People with learning disabilities in England continue to die prematurely and from treatable causes of death, the latest annual report from the Learning Disabilities Mortality Review (LeDeR) programme shows. Treatable causes of death accounted for 403 per 100,000 deaths in people with learning disabilities, compared to just 83 per 100,000 deaths in the general population, according to the University of Bristol's 2019 LeDeR Annual Report.

Share on: Share on Twitter Share on Facebook Share on LinkedIn Researchers at the University of Michigan have come up with a new way to measure educational achievement by looking at the total effect of the many traits and abilities it takes for students to succeed in school. They call this quantity "student capital.

Efforts to ensure safe drinking water for children need further support to reach their intended audience, according to an analysis of California's mandate requiring child care facilities to test their water for lead , known as AB 2370. The finding from the UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation is part of a new report and policy brief that examine strategies for developing and implementing the state's testing and remediation program for those sites.

Children who have a harmonious relationship with their parents have the edge over their peers in maths, a new study by the University of Sussex reveals. The progress in maths made by year six pupils with the most harmonious relationships with their parents was a third higher compared to children with the least harmonious, according to the study published today by the Royal Society.

Families of autistic children have been greatly impacted by lockdown reveals a study by UCL, the University of East London and the University of Bedfordshire. It found that despite the relaxed legislation on lockdown measures for autistic people brought into effect in April, 86% of those surveyed still felt that the needs of autistic people and their families were not adequately planned for or addressed by officials during the pandemic.