Infant and Preschool Learning News

December 21, 2025

Top Headlines

Rising Temperatures Are Slowing Early Childhood Development

Dec. 10, 2025 Researchers discovered that unusually high temperatures can hinder early childhood development. Children living in hotter conditions were less likely to reach key learning milestones, especially in reading and basic math skills. Those facing ...

A 70-year-old Pregnancy Drug Just Revealed a Hidden Weakness in Brain Cancer

Dec. 2, 2025 Researchers have solved the decades-old mystery behind how a common pregnancy drug lowers blood pressure. It turns out the medication blocks a fast-acting “oxygen alarm” inside cells. That same ...

Scientists Uncover the Brain’s Hidden Learning Blocks

Nov. 28, 2025 Princeton researchers found that the brain excels at learning because it reuses modular “cognitive blocks” across many tasks. Monkeys switching between visual categorization challenges revealed that the prefrontal cortex assembles these blocks ...

Your Brain’s Power Supply May Hold the Key to Mental Illness

Oct. 14, 2025 Groundbreaking Harvard research is exposing hidden energy failures inside brain cells that may drive major psychiatric conditions. By studying reprogrammed neurons, scientists are revealing how cellular metabolism shapes mood, thought, and ...

Why the Brain’s GPS Fails with Age, and How Some Minds Defy It

Oct. 5, 2025 Stanford scientists found that aging disrupts the brain’s internal navigation system in mice, mirroring spatial memory decline in humans. Older mice struggled to recall familiar locations, while a few “super-agers” retained youthful brain ...

Why so Many Young Kids with ADHD Are Getting the Wrong Treatment

Sep. 16, 2025 Preschoolers with ADHD are often given medication right after diagnosis, against medical guidelines that recommend starting with behavioral therapy. Limited access to therapy and physician pressures drive early prescribing, despite risks and reduced ...

Experts Warn: Smartphones Before 13 Could Harm Mental Health for Life

Sep. 6, 2025 Getting a smartphone before age 13 may drastically increase the risk of poor mental health later in life, according to data from more than 100,000 people. Early use is linked to suicidal thoughts, aggression, and detachment, largely driven by social ...

Tiny Microbes May Secretly Rewire the Brain Before Birth

Aug. 19, 2025 MSU researchers discovered that microbes begin shaping the brain while still in the womb, influencing neurons in a region critical for stress and social behavior. Their findings suggest modern birth practices that alter the microbiome may have ...

Four Hidden Types of Autism Revealed — And Each Tells a Different Genetic Story

July 24, 2025 Scientists at Princeton and the Simons Foundation have identified four biologically distinct subtypes of autism, using data from over 5,000 children and a powerful new computational method. These ...

Researchers Tested 200 Toddlers — 96 Chemicals Were Lurking in Their Bodies

July 2, 2025 Researchers testing urine from 2- to 4-year-olds in four U.S. states uncovered 96 different chemicals, many of them unmonitored and linked to hormone and brain disruption. Legacy toxins like ...

Sugar Shield Restored: The Breakthrough Reversing Brain Aging and Memory Loss

June 13, 2025 A protective sugar coating on brain blood vessels, once thought to be insignificant, turns out to play a vital role in preventing cognitive decline. Restoring this layer reversed damage and memory ...

Guardrails, Education Urged to Protect Adolescent AI Users

June 3, 2025 The effects of artificial intelligence on adolescents are nuanced and complex, according to a new report that calls on developers to prioritize features that protect young people from exploitation, manipulation and the erosion of real-world ...

Latest Headlines

updated 11:14am EST

Scientists Reveal Five Big Moments When Your Brain Dramatically Changes

Dec. 1, 2025 A large study of brain scans shows that our neural wiring evolves through five major stages from birth to late old age. These phases are separated by sudden turning points that mark big shifts in how ...

Chimps Shock Scientists by Changing Their Minds With New Evidence

Nov. 16, 2025 Chimps may revise their beliefs in surprisingly human-like ways. Experiments showed they switched choices when presented with stronger clues, demonstrating flexible reasoning. Computational modeling ...

Scientists Find Mind Trick That Unlocks Lost Memories

Nov. 3, 2025 Researchers found that embodying a digital, childlike version of one’s own face helps unlock vivid childhood memories. This illusion strengthens the connection between bodily self-perception and ...

A Century-Old Piano Mystery Has Just Been Solved

Oct. 2, 2025 Scientists confirmed that pianists can alter timbre through touch, using advanced sensors to capture micro-movements that shape sound perception. The discovery bridges art and science, promising ...

The Surprising Brain Chemistry Behind Instant Friendships

Aug. 13, 2025 UC Berkeley scientists found oxytocin is key for quickly forming strong friendships, but less critical for mate bonds. In prairie voles, a lack of oxytocin receptors delayed bonding and reduced ...

Singing to Babies Improves Their Mood

May 30, 2025 Singing to your infant can significantly boost the baby's mood, according to a recent study. Around the world and across cultures, singing to babies seems to come instinctively to caregivers. Now, ...

Significant Declines in Maternal Mental Health Across US

May 30, 2025 A new study reveals a concerning decline in self-reported mental health among mothers in the United States between 2016 and 2023. The study also found modest but measurable declines in self-reported ...

Mother's Warmth in Childhood Influences Teen Health by Shaping Perceptions of Social Safety

May 28, 2025 Parental warmth and affection in early childhood can have life-long physical and mental health benefits for children, and new research points to an ...

Unconditional Cash Transfers Following Childbirth Increases Breastfeeding

May 27, 2025 The U.S. is facing a maternal health crisis with higher rates of maternal mortality than any other high-income country. Social and economic factors, including income, are recognized determinants of ...

Overimitation Begins in Infancy but Is Not Yet Linked to in-Group Preference

May 26, 2025 A new study examines the emergence of overimitation in infants aged between 16 and 21 months to see if and how it is linked to social affiliation and ...

Science Says We’ve Been Nurturing “gifted” Kids All Wrong

Dec. 21, 2025 A major international review has upended long-held ideas about how top performers are made. By analyzing nearly 35,000 elite achievers across science, music, chess, and sports, researchers found that ...

Brain Scans Reveal What Happens in the Mind When Insight Strikes

May 14, 2025 That 'aha' moment when you come back to a puzzle and immediately figure it out? Something fascinating is going on in your brain. A new study using functional magnetic resonance imaging ...

The Key to Spotting Dyslexia Early Could Be AI-Powered Handwriting Analysis

May 14, 2025 A new study outlines how artificial intelligence-powered handwriting analysis may serve as an early detection tool for dyslexia and dysgraphia among young ...

Postpartum Depression and Bonding: Long-Term Effects on School-Age Children

May 14, 2025 Postpartum maternal mental health and mother-to-infant bonding are well-established as critical factors in a child's psychosocial development. However, few studies have explored the combined ...

New Survey Shows Privacy and Safety Tops List of Parental Concerns About Screen Time

May 13, 2025 As kids spend more time on screens, a new national survey conducted by Ipsos on behalf of The Kids Mental Health Foundation, founded by Nationwide Children's Hospital, identifies parents' ...

Lower Tackle Height Changing Face of Women's Rugby, Study Says

May 12, 2025 Lowering the legal tackle height in women's rugby is proving effective in reducing head contacts between players, a new study suggests. Changes to the tackle height law in women's community ...

Evidence of Mother-Offspring Attachment Types in Wild Chimpanzees

May 12, 2025 A team of researchers has identified distinct mother-offspring attachment types in wild chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus). Drawing parallels with human psychology, the study provides compelling ...

Non-Inherited Genes Affect Children's Development

May 7, 2025 Parents' genes -- even when not directly inherited by a child -- may play a role in their educational and mental health outcomes, finds a new ...

Losing a Parent May Increase Children's Risk of Being Bullied

May 7, 2025 A new study surveyed 21,000 children in China and found that the association between parental bereavement and school bullying varied by sex of the child and deceased parent, age when the death ...

Neuroscientists Pinpoint Where (and How) Brain Circuits Are Reshaped as We Learn New Movements

May 7, 2025 Brain researchers have identified a bridge between the thalamus and the cortex as the key area that is modified during motor learning functions. They found that such learning does much more than ...

Parent Coaching Sparks Major Communication Growth in Infants With Social and Communication Delays

May 6, 2025 A study found that targeted coaching for caregivers of infants as young as 8 months significantly enhances babies' communication and cognitive ...

Children as Young as Five Can Navigate a 'Tiny Town'

May 5, 2025 Neuroscientists are developing methods to map the brain systems that allow us to recognize and get around our ...

Spanking and Other Physical Discipline Lead to Exclusively Negative Outcomes for Children in Low And Middle-Income Countries

May 5, 2025 Physically punishing children in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) has exclusively negative outcomes -- including poor health, lower academic performance, and impaired social-emotional ...

STEM Students: Work Hard, but Don't Compare Yourself to Others

May 1, 2025 A new study shows how damaging it can be for college students in introductory STEM classes to compare how hard they work to the extent of effort put in by their ...

Study Links Childhood Trauma to Increased Substance Use and Unexpected Effects on Heart Rate and Blood Pressure in Adolescents

Apr. 30, 2025 Childhood trauma significantly increases the likelihood of engaging in harmful alcohol consumption, smoking and illicit drug use, by the age of ...

'Explainable' AI Cracks Secret Language of Sticky Proteins

Apr. 30, 2025 An AI tool has made a step forward in translating the language proteins use to dictate whether they form sticky clumps similar to those linked to Alzheimer's Disease and around fifty other types ...

Vision Loss Fear May Keep Some from Having Cataract Surgery

Apr. 23, 2025 A new study finds vision loss fears may deter some patients from cataract surgery, despite it being the only effective treatment. The research underscores the role of doctor-patient relationships in ...

By 15 Months, Infants Begin to Learn New Words for Objects, Even Those They've Never Seen

Apr. 23, 2025 A new study by developmental scientists offers the first evidence that infants as young as 15 months can identify an object they have learned about from listening to language -- even if the object ...

Father's Mental Health Can Impact Children for Years

Apr. 19, 2025 Five-year-olds exposed to paternal depression are more likely to have behavioral issues in grade school, researchers ...

Screen Time Surprise Under Grandparents' Care

Apr. 18, 2025 New research has found that nearly half of the time American children spend with their grandparents involves interacting with or watching media on a screen. How that screen time is managed can ...