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Different learning difficulties do not correspond to specific regions of the brain, as previously thought, say researchers at the University of Cambridge. Instead poor connectivity between 'hubs' within the brain is much more strongly related to children's difficulties. Between 14-30% of children and adolescents worldwide have learning difficulties severe enough to require additional support.

Parents who experience food insecurity might think they're protecting their children from their family's food situation by eating less or different foods so their children can be spared. But a new study led by University of Michigan researchers shows that children know more about food insecurity-the state of being without reliable access to a sufficient quantity of affordable, nutritious food-than their parents give them credit for.

Century-old theories that having girls or boys 'runs in families' have been upended by a University of Queensland study, proving parents' genes do not determine their child's gender. Dr Brendan Zietsch from UQ's School of Psychology said the study was the largest conducted on the often-debated question, and concluded the sex of offspring is essentially random.

Researchers from the University of Geneva and CY Cergy Paris University have shown that current situations conjure up past situations that share deep, structural, similarities. What clues does our memory use to connect a current situation to a situation from the past? The results of a study conducted by researchers from the University of Geneva , Switzerland, - working in collaboration with CY Cergy Paris University in France - contrast sharply with the explanations found until now in the existing literature.

Parents often put their own relationship on the back burner to concentrate on their children, but a new study shows that when spouses love each other, children stay in school longer and marry later in life. Research about how the affection between parents shapes their children's long-term life outcomes is rare because the data demands are high.

Altruistic helping - the act of giving away something desirable, even at a cost to oneself - is perhaps no more evident than when it comes to food. Human adults often respond to hungry people, whether through food banks or fundraisers, or by simply handing over their lunch. But when, and how, does that spirit of giving start? New research by the University of Washington's Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences, or I-LABS, finds that altruism may begin in infancy.

Used in virtually all of the world's languages, parentese is a speaking style that draws baby's attention. Parents adopt its simple grammar and words, plus its exaggerated sounds, almost without thinking about it. But if parents knew the way they speak could help baby learn, would they alter their speech? A new study from the Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences, or I-LABS, at the University of Washington suggests they would, to baby's benefit.

A study evaluating the effectiveness of the widely used 'Daily Mile' intervention in schools to tackle childhood obesity has found that the benefits are small, and may be greater in girls than boys. The study concludes that whilst interventions such as The Daily Mile are not going to reduce childhood obesity alone, they could be an important part of a wider population strategy to tackling this challenge.

A study evaluating the effectiveness of the widely used 'Daily Mile' intervention in schools to tackle childhood obesity has found that the benefits are small, and may be greater in girls than boys. The study concluded that whilst interventions such as The Daily Mile are not going to reduce childhood obesity alone, they could be an important part of a wider population strategy to tackling this challenge.

A public ban on smoking in cars in England and Wales has led to fewer children being exposed to cigarette smoke, according to new analysis. England and Wales banned smoking in cars carrying children in 2015, with Scotland introducing a ban the following year. But to date, the impact of the legislation on children's exposure to cigarette smoke has been unclear.

Knowledge of multiple languages has long been shown to have lifelong benefits, from enhancing communication skills to boosting professional opportunities to staving off the cognitive effects of aging. When researchers at the University of Washington found that even babies whose parents are monolingual could rapidly learn a second language in a small classroom environment, a new challenge was born: How could they expand their program?

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Stay-at-home parents are likely to tweet anti-spanking beliefs and desires, but those 280-character messages may not always convey what's happening in homes. Despite growing research that spanking leads to children's behavior problems, many parents still support the use of spanking-and among such parents are those who may turn to Twitter and present themselves in a positive manner when discussing child discipline and spanking, according to a new University of Michigan study.

A new study from researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison shows that the young children of parents who take part in a compassion-based training program develop lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol over time.

Binge drinking by teenagers in their senior year of high school is a strong predictor of dangerous behaviors later in life, including driving while impaired (DWI) and riding with an impaired driver (RWI), according to a new Yale-led study. But researchers also found that what teens believe their parents know about their leisure activities and who their friends are - and whether the parents approve or disapprove of alcohol use - can have life-saving effects.

As early as 4 years old, children associate power and masculinity, even in countries considered to be more egalitarian like Norway. This is what scientists at the Institut des Sciences Cognitives Marc Jeannerod (CNRS/Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1) report, in collaboration with the Universities of Oslo (Norway), Lausanne and Neuchâtel (Switzerland), in a study published on 7 January 2020 in Sex Roles .

Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University found that digital storybooks that animate upon a child's vocalization offer beneficial learning opportunities, especially for children with less developed attention regulation. "Digital platforms have exploded in popularity, and a huge proportion of the top-selling apps are educational interfaces for children," said Erik Thiessen, associate professor of Psychology at CMU's Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences and senior author on the paper.

A study has shown that regular weekly gamblers were more likely to be male and had developed habits and patterns of play by age 20. Factors such as the gambling habits of parents and social media use were also found to influence a young person's gambling activity. The in-depth longitudinal study by the University of Bristol's Children of the 90s was commissioned by GambleAware.

A newfound link between levels of "bad" cholesterol at birth and subsequent childhood behavior could help identify and treat people who are prone to experiencing depression and other mental difficulties. Stanford researchers have shown that levels of cholesterol and fat in a newborn's blood can reliably predict that child's psychological and social health five years later.

Over 30 million Chinese children, aged between seven and 18, are overweight or obese - placing them at greater risk of an early death and this number is set to rise to 50 million by 2030, caused in part by the role grandparents play in childcare. Researchers at the Universities of Birmingham and Bristol worked with Guangzhou Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, enlisting 1,641 six-year-old children across 40 primary schools in Guangzhou to evaluate the effectiveness of the CHIRPY DRAGON programme in tackling childhood obesity.