Child Development News

March 19, 2025

Top Headlines

Bridging Nature and Nurture: Study Reveals Brain's Flexible Foundation from Birth

Mar. 17, 2025 — By studying never-before-seen details of brain connectivity in human infants, researchers have identified how a balance of innate structure and flexible learning produces our remarkably organized ...

When Did Human Language Emerge?

Mar. 18, 2025 — Humans' unique language capacity was present at least 135,000 years ago, according to a survey of genomic evidence. As such, language might have entered social use 100,000 years ...

New AI Model Analyzes Full Night of Sleep With High Accuracy in Largest Study of Its Kind

Mar. 17, 2025 — Researchers have developed a powerful AI tool, built on the same transformer architecture used by large language models like ChatGPT, to process an entire night's sleep. To date, it is one of the ...

Oxytocin System of Breastfeeding Affected in Mothers With Postnatal Depression

Mar. 14, 2025 — The oxytocin system -- which helps release breast milk and strengthens the bond between mother and baby -- may be affected during breastfeeding in mothers experiencing postnatal ...

Latest Headlines

updated 11:00pm EDT

Do You See What I See?

Mar. 12, 2025 — As a child, did it ever occur to you that your perception of color differed from that of others? It's quite common to have this thought, but it turns out that the human color experience may be more ...

What's in a Label? It's Different for Boys Vs. Girls, New Study of Parents Finds

Mar. 10, 2025 — Research has shown that adults instinctively think of men when asked to think of a person -- they describe the most 'typical' person they can imagine ...

Children Who Lack Fish in Their Diets Are Less Sociable and Kind, Study Finds

Mar. 11, 2025 — Children who consumed the least amounts of seafood at 7-years-old were likely to be less 'prosocial' at ages 7 and 9 years than those who regularly ...

Good Parenting Helps, but Has Limits Under Major Deprivation

Mar. 11, 2025 — Parenting skills can make a big difference in fostering a newborn's language acquisition and cognition, but there may be a limit to how far parenting can go to make up the challenges to developing ...

Does Getting ADHD Drugs Via Telehealth Increase Addiction Risk?

Mar. 5, 2025 — A study of people who started ADHD stimulant treatment via telehealth vs in-person visits shows no difference in risk of new substance use disorders except for young adults age ...

Study Pinpoints the Impact of Prenatal Stress Across 27 Weeks of Pregnancy

Mar. 10, 2025 — Researchers found new insights on the timing of prenatal stress and its effect on infant stress reactivity and temperament -- including differences between ...

Limiting Screen Time Protects Children's Mental Health

Mar. 10, 2025 — A recent study suggests that limiting screen time and promoting physical activity from childhood may help safeguard mental health in adolescence. The findings are particularly significant given that ...

Improving School Readiness for Children With Low Birth Weight

Mar. 7, 2025 — School readiness not only impacts kids' academic success, but also their long-term economic and health outcomes. Unfortunately, research reveals a concerning gap in school readiness for children with ...

Genomics to Revolutionize Treatment of Childhood Rare Diseases

Mar. 6, 2025 — A simple genomics blood test could improve treatment and care for childhood epilepsy, but more investment is needed to make access fair and securely join up the data, finds a new ...

For Some, Childhood Adversity Can Promote Resilience to Anxiety Disorders

Mar. 5, 2025 — Research has shown that young people who face adversity such as traumatic or stressful events during brain development are 40% more likely to develop anxiety disorders by adulthood. But most people ...

A Third of Children Worldwide Forecast to Be Obese or Overweight by 2050

Mar. 3, 2025 — Obesity rates are set to skyrocket, with one in six children and adolescents worldwide forecast to be obese by 2050, according to a new study. But with significant increases predicted within the next ...

It's Not Just What You Say -- It's Also How You Say It

Mar. 3, 2025 — First study to reveal the brain encodes pitch accents separately from the sounds that make up words. Heschl's gyrus region of the brain, an earlier stage of auditory processing, plays a much ...

Researchers Uncover Blood Metabolites That May Influence Early Childhood Development

Feb. 28, 2025 — Researchers have identified small molecules in the blood that may impact early childhood development, showing how dietary exposures, early life experiences, and gut health can influence a ...

How Many Languages Can You Learn at the Same Time? -- Ghanaian Babies Grow Up Speaking Two to Six Languages

Feb. 28, 2025 — Africa is a multilingual continent and many adults speak several languages fluently. An empirical study by a psycholinguist now shows that the roots of this multilingualism can be found in infancy: ...

Associative Learning: Primary School Children Outperform All Other Age Groups

Feb. 27, 2025 — The ability to make the connection between an event and its consequences -- experts use the term associative learning -- is a crucial skill for adapting to the environment. It has a huge impact on ...

Improving Relationships Between Dads and Daughters... It's a Walk in the Park

Feb. 27, 2025 — A simple walk in the park could hold the key to unlocking a close and loving relationship between fathers and daughters, a new study has ...

How Parenthood May Help Keep Your Brain Young

Feb. 26, 2025 — Researchers find that parents show patterns of brain connectivity that oppose age-related ...

Screening and Treating Maternal Psychological Health Key to Improving Cardiovascular Health

Feb. 25, 2025 — Identifying and treating risk factors for depression, anxiety and other psychological health conditions during pregnancy and postpartum may improve short- and long-term health outcomes for both ...

We Need a New Definition of Dyslexia, Research Says

Feb. 25, 2025 — A new definition of dyslexia is needed to more accurately describe the learning disorder and give those struggling with dyslexia the specific support they require, says new ...

Child ADHD Risk Linked to Mother's Use of Acetaminophen

Feb. 20, 2025 — Fetal acetaminophen exposure increases the likelihood that a child will develop attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), according to a new ...

Another Way Longer Paternity Leaves Help New Parents

Feb. 20, 2025 — A longer paternity leave after the birth of a child can improve the co-parenting relationship between moms and dads in a key way, a new study finds. Researchers found that mothers were less likely to ...

Promising Results from First Prenatal Therapy for Spinal Muscular Atrophy

Feb. 19, 2025 — Scientists report results from a promising new approach to treat the rare neurodegenerative ...

Like Human Brains, Large Language Models Reason About Diverse Data in a General Way

Feb. 19, 2025 — Researchers find large language models process diverse types of data, like different languages, audio inputs, images, etc., similarly to how humans reason about complex problems. Like humans, LLMs ...

A Single Protein May Have Helped Shape the Emergence of Spoken Language

Feb. 18, 2025 — How much does the evolution of human speech owe to one amino ...

Lack of Discussion Drives Traditional Gender Roles in Parenthood

Feb. 13, 2025 — Conversations about parental duties continue to be led by mothers, even if both parents earn the same amount of money, finds a new ...

Group Childcare Positively Affects Toddler Development

Feb. 13, 2025 — Many Japanese mothers are reluctant to send their children to childcare before the age of three due to the 'Three-Year-Old Myth,' which suggests that healthy development requires a child to ...

Study Maps New Brain Regions Behind Intended Speech

Feb. 13, 2025 — Imagine seeing a furry, four-legged animal that meows. Mentally, you know what it is, but the word 'cat' is stuck on the tip of your tongue. This phenomenon, known as Broca's aphasia ...

The Complicated Question of How We Determine Who Has an Accent

Feb. 13, 2025 — How do you tell if someone has a particular accent? It might seem obvious: You hear someone pronounce words in a way that is different from 'normal' and connect it to other people from a ...

More Sunshine as a Baby Linked to Less Disease Activity for Children With MS

Feb. 12, 2025 — Getting at least 30 minutes of daily summer sun in the first year of life may mean a lower relapse risk for children who are diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) later, according to a new study. ...

Adults Can Learn Absolute Pitch: New Research Challenges Long-Held Musical Belief

Feb. 12, 2025 — It's been a long-held belief that absolute pitch -- the ability to identify musical notes without reference -- is a rare gift reserved for a select few with special genetic gifts or those who ...