Children's Health: How do toddlers use tablets? ♦ Stress in low-income families can affect children's learning ♦ Good working memory can make you a better liar

Stress in low-income families can affect children's learning Children living in low-income households who endure family instability and emotionally distant caregivers are at risk of having impaired cognitive abilities, according to new research.

How do toddlers use tablets? Researchers studied more than 200 YouTube videos in an effort to understand how toddlers use tablets.

In an Advanced Placement class? Better take the AP test Each year over 2 million high school students take over 4 million Advanced Placement (AP) tests in an attempt to earn college credit. The number of AP students in the United States is growing each year, but a new study questions the usefulness of AP courses for students who don’t take AP tests

Good working memory can make you a better liar Working memory helps children tell better lies, according to new research. The higher a child's verbal working memory, the better their ability to process the verbal information necessary to tell a believable lie.

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Children Health Toddler temperament influenced by gut bacteria ♦ Melanoma rates dramatically increasing in children ♦ Migraine surgery for teens ♦ Helping youth cope with anxiety, depression, and suicidal thoughts

Toddler temperament could be influenced by different types of gut bacteria The microbiome of a toddler's gut may influence their behavior, a new study suggests. Scientists found correlations between temperament and the presence of specific types of intestinal bacteria in both girls and boys. The researchers aren't looking for a way to help parents modify the 'terrible twos,' but for clues about how - and where - chronic illnesses like obesity, asthma, allergies and bowel diseases start

Melanoma rates dramatically increasing in children and young adults The incidence of melanoma, a deadly form of skin cancer, has increased by more than 250% among children, adolescents and young adults since 1973,

Migraine surgery for teens: Good results in initial experience As in adults, migraine surgery is effective for selected adolescent patients with severe migraine headaches that don't respond to standard treatments.

Helping youth cope with anxiety, depression, and suicidal thoughts A program is helping strengthen the mental health of public school students. The EMPATHY program, created and implemented in 2013, shows after just three months of use in schools, the program significantly decreased anxiety, depression and suicidal thoughts among the student population.

10/21/13 Daily Health News, Virus Fighting Protein, Toddler's Language Skills, Antibiotic Resistance in MRSA

Toddler Brain Scan Gives Language Insight

The brain has a critical window for language development between the ages of two and four, brain scans suggest. Environmental influences have their biggest impact before the age of four, as the brain's wiring develops to process new words, say UK and US scientists. The research in The Journal of Neuroscience suggests disorders causing language delay should be tackled early. It also explains why young children are good at learning two languages.  Continue Reading

Pentagon Seeks to Design Virus-Fighting Protein 'Cocktails'

The U.S. Defense Department is weighing a new search for immune-protein "cocktails" it hopes will protect humans against Ebola and other deadly, weapon-usable viruses. The Pentagon two weeks ago invited scientists to submit research proposals for designing "monoclonal antibodies" that could protect Continue Reading

Keys Uncovered to Antibiotic Resistance in MRSA

University of Notre Dame researchers Shahriar Mobashery and Mayland Chang and their collaborators in Spain have published research results that show how methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) regulates the critical crosslinking of its cell wall in the face of beta-lactam antibiotics. The work, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, reveals the mechanistic basis for how the MRSA bacterium became such a difficult pathogen over the previous 50 years, in which time it spread rapidly across the world.Continue Reading