Childrens Health: Most adolescents feel better after gastric bypass ♦ Climbing a tree can improve cognitive skills ♦ Adolescents with sleep problems more likely to self-harm

Early prosocial behavior good predictor of kids' future Kindergartners' social-emotional skills are a significant predictor of their future education, employment and criminal activity, among other outcomes.

Climbing a tree can improve cognitive skills Climbing a tree and balancing on a beam can dramatically improve cognitive skills. The findings suggest working memory improvements can be made in just a couple of hours of these types of physical exercises.

Adolescents with sleep problems more likely to self-harm There is a strong relationship between sleep problems such as insomnia, and self-harm, according to findings in a new Norwegian study. The researchers say that depressive symptoms accounted for some, but not all, of the association to self-harming. However, the latter association remained significant even in the fully adjusted analyses.

Positive reinforcement plays key role in cognitive task performance in ADHD kids A little recognition for a job well done means a lot to children with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder -- more so than it would for typically developing kids.

Most adolescents feel better after gastric bypass Teenagers suffering from severe obesity generally feel worse than their peers, but after undergoing gastric bypass nearly all experience improved mental health. One in five, however, still suffers from symptoms of depression -- some quite seriously.

Childrens Health: Strategy found for safely prescribing antidepressants to children ♦ High fever: Is it measles or flu? ♦ Childhood maltreatment linked to sleep problems

Researchers hope to improve dental health by changing caregiver's behavior Studies have long associated low-income areas with poor oral health. But dental researchers have sensed that other factors related to income may be at work -- in particular, education level. So they recently investigated how a parent or other caregiver's education level and dental habits affect children's dental health

High fever: Is it measles or flu? A pathologist and infectious disease expert offers symptoms parents should watch for if they suspect their child has the measles.

'Herd immunity' threatened in measles outbreak, pathologist says Spending time with other people is a cure for loneliness. But being a member of a vaccinated community has an important added benefit: preventing the spread of vaccine-preventable infectious diseases. The current concern over outbreaks of measles in the United States provides valuable lessons about how vaccinations are effective across a broad community.

Childhood maltreatment linked to sleep problems among adults Adults who experienced multiple incidents of childhood maltreatment were more than two times as likely to have trouble sleeping than their counterparts who were not maltreated during childhood.

Strategy found for safely prescribing antidepressants to children and adolescents Two new strategies to treat depression in young people have been developed for the use of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor class of medications. These strategies incorporate a new understanding of how to mitigate the risk of suicide while on SSRI treatment