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Language skills are essential to a child’s ability to communicate and develop. These skills enable children to engage with other people and learn from their surroundings and in the classroom.

Study looks at traumatic brain injury - leading cause of abusive death in children

Confronted with the same hypothetical scenarios of traumatic brain injuries to children, pediatricians and pathologists were unable to agree half the time whether the deaths should be investigated as potential child abuse, researchers at Indiana University School of Medicine found.

16 May 2007

Online heart disease education program helps patients

Patients who used the American Heart Association's online heart disease education program were more aware of treatment options than other patients, researchers reported at the American Heart Association's 8th Scientific Forum on Quality of Care and Outcomes Research in Cardiovascular Disease and Stroke.

16 May 2007

The Phi Complex as a neuromarker of human social coordination

Researchers from Florida Atlantic University (FAU) have been able to identify neural signatures of effective, real-time coordination between people in one of the first studies in the field of social neuroscience to actually record, measure and analyze both behavior and brain activity simultaneously in two interacting humans.

16 May 2007

Better care for baby boomers

As the first wave of "want to be forever young" baby boomers turns 60, Saint Louis University is creating a new center for research, education and clinical care to help them reach their goal.

15 May 2007

Community interventions help tackle childhood obesity

A community-based environmental change intervention to prevent obesity in culturally diverse, early elementary school children reduced weight gain over one school year.

11 May 2007

Genetic component to autism

Using an innovative statistical approach, a research team from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and the University of California, Los Angeles, has identified two regions of DNA linked to autism.

10 May 2007

More power to FDA on drug safety

The Senate overwhelmingly passed significant prescription drug safety reforms to give the Food and Drug Administration more power to deal with unsafe medicines on the market, moving the issue of drug safety to the House, where a strong bill has been introduced but has yet to be considered.

10 May 2007

Multitasking mental cells

In the mid-1990s, scientists at the University of Parma, in Italy, made a discovery so novel that it shifted the way psychologists discuss the brain. After researchers implanted electrodes into the heads of monkeys, they noticed a burst of activity in the premotor cortex when the animals clutched a piece of food.

8 May 2007

Children with autism cannot read facial expressions

When we have a conversation with someone, we not only hear what they say, we see what they say.

8 May 2007

Season of conception a factor in how a child does in school

According to the latest research the time of year a woman conceives may affect her child's academic performance.

8 May 2007

Does the time of year in which a child is conceived influence future academic achievement?

Yes, according to research by neonatologist Paul Winchester, M.D., Indiana University School of Medicine professor of clinical pediatrics. Dr. Winchester, who studied 1,667,391 Indiana students, presents his finding on May 7 at the Pediatric Academic Societies' annual meeting.

7 May 2007

Women from all ethnic backgrounds are more successful at passing UK medical exams than their male counterparts

Women from all ethnic backgrounds are more successful at passing UK medical exams than their male counterparts, according to research published in the open access journal BMC Medicine.

4 May 2007

FDA wants new warnings on antidepressant medications

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has proposed that makers of all antidepressant medications update the existing black box warning on their products' labeling to include warnings about increased risks of suicidal thinking and behavior, known as suicidality, in young adults ages 18 to 24 during initial treatment (generally the first one to two months).

4 May 2007

Women who use estrogen hormone therapy before 65 reduce likelihood of Alzheimer's or dementia

Women who use hormone therapy before the age of 65 could cut their risk of developing Alzheimer's disease or dementia.

4 May 2007

FDA - all antidepressants need new warning labels

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the United States wants the manufacturers of antidepressant medications to change the labels on their products.

3 May 2007

Illinois House considers bill to remove written consent requirement for HIV tests

The Illinois House is considering a bill (HB 980) that would remove a state requirement that people receiving HIV tests provide written consent prior to undergoing the test, the Chicago Tribune reports.

2 May 2007

St. Lawrence University in pilot project to improve depression screening

Fifteen percent of college students suffered from depression last year, up from 10 percent in 2000, according to The American College Health Association. Mental health professionals on college campuses expect the percentage to rise again this year.

1 May 2007

New interactive map shows spread of avian flu virus

Scientists here have designed a new, interactive map of the spread of the avian flu virus (H5N1) that for the first time incorporates genetic, geographic and evolutionary information that may help predict where the next outbreak of the virus is likely to occur.

1 May 2007

Exercise helps patients regain the ability to swallow

Just thinking about swallowing makes it harder to do. Head and neck cancer, a stroke, brain tumor, brain injury or even a tracheostomy tube and mechanical ventilation needed to sustain life can make it impossible.

1 May 2007

Ape gestures offer clues to evolution of human communication

Researchers at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center, Emory University, have found bonobos and chimpanzees use manual gestures of their hands, feet and limbs more flexibly than they do facial expressions and vocalizations, further supporting the evolution of human language began with gestures as the gestural origin hypothesis of language suggests.

1 May 2007