Kids don’t all learn at the same pace, or in the same way. Extra tutoring doesn’t always help either, but for some it helps a lot. Why?
Researchers, publishing this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, believe the answer is in the brain. By looking at the structures and wiring of children’s brains, they’ve developed a method of predicting who will benefit most from tutoring.
This doesn’t mean, however, that you will be seeing brain scans in every school.
“What we’ve done is much more modest, in terms of trying to understand what are the systems that underlie individual differences in response to math tutoring,” said Vinod Menon, professor at Stanford University School of Medicine and senior author of the study.
Methods
The study looked at 24 children in third grade, ages 8 to 9, which is a critical period for gaining basic math skills. Menon’s previous research, published in 2011, found that third-graders demonstrate superior problem-solving abilities compared to second-graders, and that this is also associated with brain changes.
Full story of children’s brains predictions at CNN Health
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Beedie Savage – President of Quantum Units Education
New research reveals why some children are badly affected by negative family conflicts while other children survive without significant problems.
Researchers found that the way in which children understood the conflicts between their parents had different effects on their emotional and behavioral problems. Where children blamed themselves for the conflicts between their parents, they were more likely to have behavioral problems, such as anti-social behavior.
But if their parents’ fighting or arguing led to a child feeling threatened, or fearful that the family would split up, the child was more likely to experience emotional problems, such as depression.
The impact of everyday conflict between parents on their children’s behavior and mental health is driven by how the children understand the problems in the relationship as well as the nature of the conflict itself, the researchers found. These disagreements include; hostile relationships between parents, poor parenting practices, negative parent-child relationships and maternal depression.
Full story of family conflict affecting children at Science Daily
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Beedie Savage – President of Quantum Units Education
Children raised by gay or lesbian couples benefit when their parents are allowed to marry, America’s top pediatrics group said Thursday in support of same-sex marriage.
“If a child has two living and capable parents who choose to create a permanent bond by way of civil marriage, it is in the best interest of their child(ren) that legal and social institutions allow and support them to do so, irrespective of their sexual orientation,” the American Academy of Pediatrics said in a policy statement.
Dr. Ellen Perrin, co-author of the policy statement, says marriage gives children of same-sex couples the same advantages of any married couple’s children.
“Marriage provides permanence and security for children, and those are extremely important for children’s well-being,” said Perrin, a professor at Tufts University School of Medicine who specializes in the developmental behavior of children. “(Marriage) allows them to grow up in an environment in which they’re confident of the solidity of their family and the fact that their family is just like every other family of kids they know in school.”
Full story of same-sex parenting at CNN Health
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Beedie Savage – President of Quantum Units Education
Teens who were depressed as children are far more likely than their peers to be obese, smoke cigarettes and lead sedentary lives, even if they no longer suffer from depression.
The research, by scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and the University of Pittsburgh, suggests that depression, even in children, can increase the risk of heart problems later in life.
The researchers report their findings March 15 at the annual meeting of the American Psychosomatic Society in Miami, Fla.
"Part of the reason this is so worrisome is that a number of recent studies have shown that when adolescents have these cardiac risk factors, they’re much more likely to develop heart disease as adults and even to have a shorter lifespan," says first author Robert M. Carney, PhD, a professor of psychiatry at Washington University. "Active smokers as adolescents are twice as likely to die by the age of 55 than nonsmokers, and we see similar risks with obesity, so finding this link between childhood depression and these risk factors suggests that we need to very closely monitor young people who have been depressed."
Full story of depression in kids at Science Daily
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Beedie Savage – President of Quantum Units Education
Children who avoid situations they find scary are likely to have anxiety a Mayo Clinic study of more than 800 children ages 7 to 18 found. The study published this month in Behavior Therapy presents a new method of measuring avoidance behavior in young children.
The researchers developed two eight-question surveys: the Children’s Avoidance Measure Parent Report and the Children’s Avoidance Measure Self Report. The questionnaires ask details about children’s avoidance tendencies, for instance, in addressing parents, "When your child is scared or worried about something, does he or she ask to do it later?" It also asks children to describe their passive avoidance habits. For example: "When I feel scared or worried about something, I try not to go near it."
One of the most surprising findings was that measuring avoidance could also predict children’s development of anxiety. Children who participated in the study showed stable anxiety scores after a year had passed, but those who described avoidance behaviors at the onset tended to be more anxious a year later.
Full story of children and anxiety at Science Daily
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Beedie Savage – President of Quantum Units Education
Kids don’t all learn at the same pace, or in the same way. Extra tutoring doesn’t always help either, but for some it helps a lot. Why?
