Literacy News

February 28, 2026

Top Headlines

Depression May Be the Brain’s Early Warning Sign of Parkinson’s or Dementia

Feb. 11, 2026 Depression in older adults may sometimes signal the early stages of Parkinson’s disease or Lewy body dementia. Researchers found that depression often appears years before diagnosis and remains ...

Researchers Tested AI Against 100,000 Humans on Creativity

Jan. 25, 2026 A massive new study comparing more than 100,000 people with today’s most advanced AI systems delivers a surprising result: generative AI can now beat the average human on certain creativity tests. Models like GPT-4 showed strong performance on ...

The Human Brain May Work More Like AI Than Anyone Expected

Jan. 21, 2026 Scientists have discovered that the human brain understands spoken language in a way that closely resembles how advanced AI language models work. By tracking brain activity as people listened to a long podcast, researchers found that meaning unfolds ...

Nearly All Women in STEM Secretly Feel Like Impostors

Jan. 5, 2026 Nearly all women in STEM graduate programs report feeling like impostors, despite strong evidence of success. This mindset leads many to dismiss their achievements as luck and fear being “found out.” Research links impostorism to worse mental ...

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 Simple DNA Test Could Reveal the Right Antidepressant for You

Nov. 9, 2025 Millions struggle with depression and anxiety, often enduring long waits for effective treatment. Scientists in Sweden, Denmark, and Germany are developing a genetic test to predict which medications will actually work. Using polygenic risk scores, ...

Your IQ May Determine How Well You Hear in a Crowd

Oct. 29, 2025 New research reveals that intelligence plays a key role in how well people process speech in noisy environments. The study compared neurotypical and neurodivergent individuals and found that cognitive ability predicted performance across all groups. ...

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 ...

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 other forms of imitation. The researchers found ...

AI Is Here to Stay, Let Students Embrace the Technology, Experts Urge

May 26, 2025 A new study says students appear to be using generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) responsibly, and as a way to speed up tasks, not just boost their ...

PREVENT Equation Accurately Estimated 10-year CVD Risk and Those with Calcium Buildup

May 23, 2025 A new risk calculator accurately identified participants who had calcium buildup in their heart arteries and those who had a higher future heart attack risk, in an analysis of about 7,000 adults in ...

Latest Headlines

updated 11:16am EST

Scientists Reveal Why Human Language Isn’t Like Computer Code

Feb. 20, 2026 Human language may seem messy and inefficient compared to the ultra-compact strings of ones and zeros used by computers—but our brains actually prefer it that way. New research reveals that while ...

Why Some Kids Struggle With Math Even When They Try Hard

Feb. 15, 2026 A new Stanford study suggests math struggles may be about more than numbers. Children who had difficulty with math were less likely to adjust their thinking after making mistakes during number ...

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 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 ...

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 rugby in ...

Addressing Hearing Loss May Reduce Isolation Among the Elderly

May 12, 2025 Providing hearing aids and advice on their use may preserve social connections that often wane as we age, a new study shows. Its authors say that this approach could help ease the loneliness epidemic ...

Non-Inherited Genes Affect Children's Development

May 8, 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 ...

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 ...

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

May 4, 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 ...

Essay Challenge: ChatGPT Vs Students

May 1, 2025 Researchers have been putting ChatGPT essays to the test against real students. A new study reveals that the AI generated essays don't yet live up to the efforts of real students. While the AI essays ...

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 ...

This 100-Year-Old Teaching Method Is Beating Modern Preschools

Jan. 1, 2026 A first-of-its-kind national trial shows that public Montessori preschool students enter kindergarten with stronger reading, memory, and executive function skills than their peers. These gains ...

Children's Reading and Writing Develop Better When They Are Trained in Handwriting

Apr. 30, 2025 Researchers explored how manual and keyboard practice influenced children's abilities in their reading and writing learning process. 5-year-olds were taught an artificial alphabet using ...

Novel Treatment Approach for Language Disorder Shows Promise

Apr. 21, 2025 Neuroscientists have developed a new treatment approach for a language disorder that combines traditional speech therapy with noninvasive electrical stimulation of the brain. Brain stimulation helped ...

Study Shows Addressing Working Memory Can Help Students With Math Difficulty Improve Word Problem-Solving Skills

Apr. 21, 2025 Working memory is like a mental chalkboard we use to store temporary information while executing other tasks. Scientists worked with more than 200 elementary students to test their working memory, ...

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 ...

Hidden Potential in Multiple Disabilities

Apr. 10, 2025 Using eye-tracking -- a technique for recording and analyzing eye movements -- a team has shown that individuals with multiple disabilities can improve their social and emotional skills. Although ...

Exposure to Air Pollution May Harm Brain Health of Older Adults

Apr. 7, 2025 Long-term exposure to high levels of air pollution may harm the brain health of older adults in England, finds a new ...

Fear of Rejection Influences How Children Conform to Peers

Apr. 4, 2025 The fear of rejection -- familiar to many children and adults -- can significantly impact how kids behave in their peer groups, according to new ...

How GPS Helps Older Drivers Stay on the Roads

Apr. 3, 2025 New research shows that Sat Nav systems are helping keep older drivers on the roads for longer. The study reveals that over 65s with a poorer sense of direction rely more on help from GPS navigation ...

Science 'Storytelling' Urgently Needed Amid Climate and Biodiversity Crisis

Apr. 2, 2025 Scientists should experiment with creative ways of communicating their work to inspire action to protect the natural world, researchers ...

Classroom Talk Plays a Key Part in the Teaching of Writing

Mar. 27, 2025 The way teachers manage classroom discussion with pupils plays a key role in the teaching of writing, a new study ...

Adulting Is Hard on the Heart: Teen to Young Adulthood Is a Critical Time to Address Risk

Mar. 26, 2025 Many youth have heart disease risk factors by their late teens, and preventing or addressing these risks early may reduce the risk of developing cardiovascular disease in the future, according to a ...

How Family Background Can Help Lead to Athletic Success

Mar. 20, 2025 Americans have long believed that sports are one area in society that offers kids from all backgrounds the chance to succeed to the best of their abilities. But new research suggests that this belief ...

To the Brain, Esperanto and Klingon Appear the Same as English or Mandarin

Mar. 18, 2025 New research finds the brain's language-processing network also responds to artificial languages such as Esperanto and languages made for TV, such as Klingon on 'Star Trek' and High ...

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 ...

Re-Purposed FDA-Approved Drug Could Help Treat High-Grade Glioma

Mar. 13, 2025 A study shows that high-grade glioma tumor cells harboring DNA alterations in the gene PDGFRA responded to the drug avapritinib, which is already approved by the United States Food and Drug ...

More Than Marks: How Wellbeing Shapes Academic Success

Mar. 11, 2025 A world first* study of more than 215,000 students, researchers found that while standardized tests measure academic skills, different dimensions of wellbeing -- emotional wellbeing, engagement, and ...

New Research Reveals Psychological 'Booster Shots' Can Strengthen Resistance to Misinformation Over Time

Mar. 11, 2025 A new study has found that targeted psychological interventions can significantly enhance long-term resistance to misinformation. Dubbed 'psychological booster shots,' these interventions ...

AI-Based Math: Individualized Support for Schoolchildren

Mar. 10, 2025 Researchers have developed an AI-based learning system that recognizes strengths and weaknesses in mathematics by tracking eye movements with a webcam to generate problem-solving hints. This enables ...