Time
October 2, 2009

"What parent hasn't used candy to pacify a cranky child or head off a brewing tantrum? When reasoning, threats and time-outs fail, a sugary treat often does the trick. But while that chocolate-covered balm may be highly effective in the short term, say British scientists, it may be setting youngsters up for problem behavior later. According to a new study, kids who eat too many treats at a young age risk becoming violent in adulthood.

The research was led by Simon Moore, a senior lecturer in Violence and Society Research at Cardiff University in the U.K., who specializes in the study of vulnerable youngsters. Moore had been investigating the factors that lead children to commit serious crimes, when, during the course of his work, he discovered that "kids with the worst problems tend to be impulsive risk takers, and that these kids had terrible diets — breakfast was a Coke and a bag of chips," he says."

Los Angeles Times
October 1, 2009

"Researchers at Harvard University and Children's Hospital Boston will sequence the genomes of at least 85 people diagnosed with autism in a bid to tease out the genetic basis for some cases of the neuropsychiatric disorder.

Funded by $4.5 million from the federal stimulus package, the study's broad outlines were unveiled Wednesday.

The study's first phase will focus on 85 autistic patients from the Middle East. All have a recessive form of the disease, and all are linked by common ancestry. Studying this unique population, researchers have already narrowed the hunt for the common genetic mutation they share to an area that represents just 1% of their genome."

Salon.com
September 28, 2009

"It's a Sunday night at the tail end of summer, and I've dragged two squawky kids out of the minivan and into a half-closed rest stop on the Garden State Parkway in search of non-dreadful dinner options. Leslie, their mother, is catching some precious zone-out time in the car. After we sit down with our unadorned burger and fries, I notice the woman at the next table, the one who's making eye contact and smiling.

"Are they twins?" she asks. "How wonderful!" Then she talks to Nini and Desmond: "Wow, you guys are 5. So big! Are you starting kindergarten soon?"

Here's where the fun starts.

My son and daughter regard me in grave silence, faces stuffed with processed meat and fried potato product. They field this question themselves fairly often, but they're going to let me take it this time. For an insane split second, I consider a full-on lie, just some total invention about where and when they're going to school this fall. Instead, I take a swig of fizzy fountain Pepsi and bite the bullet: "Actually, we're home schooling.""

The New York Times
September 29, 2009

"Austin didn’t know what to wear to his first gay dance last spring. It was bad enough that the gangly 13-year-old from Sand Springs, Okla., had to go without his boyfriend at the time, a 14-year-old star athlete at another middle school, but there were also laundry issues. “I don’t have any clean clothes!” he complained to me by text message, his favored method of communication.

When I met up with him an hour later, he had weathered his wardrobe crisis (he was in jeans and a beige T-shirt with musical instruments on it) but was still a nervous wreck. “I’m kind of scared,” he confessed. “Who am I going to talk to? I wish my boyfriend could come.” But his boyfriend couldn’t find anyone to give him a ride nor, Austin explained, could his boyfriend ask his father for one. “His dad would give him up for adoption if he knew he was gay,” Austin told me. “I’m serious. He has the strictest, scariest dad ever. He has to date girls and act all tough so that people won’t suspect.”"

The Huffington Post
September 21, 2009

"What parent doesn’t want their kid to feel good about themselves?  If I see that commercial one more time, with the little kid batting the ball saying:  “I am the best hitter in the world!”  or , “I am the best pitcher in the world!”,   with the ‘happy soundtrack’ in the background, (what is that “Celebration”?!) one more time, I think I will explode.

The catch line for the commercial is:  “That’s OPTIMISM!”  I shake my head muttering  “No, that’s delusional!”

Call me a bad parent, or an a-hole.  All I think is that chances this kid is the best pitcher in the world and can keep thinking and saying that to himself, is such a set up for the day he throws down his glove and stomps off the field because he couldn’t hit the ball, he feels like crap and won’t go back, because he isn’t “the best pitcher”."

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/donna-fish/kids-and-self-esteem-the_b_293245.html

"

Slate
September 18, 2009

"In a study released Tuesday, researchers determined that children who were spanked as 1-year-olds were more likely to behave aggressively at age 2. How do you measure the aggression of a 2-year-old?

Ask the parents. Psychologists send out a standard questionnaire, called the Child Behavior Checklist (PDF), which uses 100 descriptive phrases to rate a toddler's actions over the past two months. These include acts of violence—like "Hits others" and "Cruel to animals"—and more inwardly focused behaviors—like "Uncooperative" and "Plays with own sex parts too much." Parents mark down 0, 1, or 2 for each phrase, depending on how well it applies to their kid. Then researchers add up the values for a specific subset of the items—usually 15 or 20—to create an index of toddler aggression. The most peaceful tot would score a zero; the most feisty, a 30 or 40."

Los Angeles Times
September 16, 2009

"The fatty acids DHA and ARA are credited with boosting the IQs of babies who are breast-fed. Both substances are abundant in breast milk, and they help build connections among neurons in the developing brain.

So it would stand to reason that adding DHA and ARA to infant formula would be good for babies. But the scientific evidence so far has been mixed.

A new study published Tuesday in the journal Child Development finds that the two fatty acids do contribute to infant brain power -- under the right circumstances."

The Daily Beast
September 4, 2009

"Carissa Morgan's 11-year-old son, Dylan, has been on antidepressants since the age of 6, and in that time, she's heard all the accusations. “I think it’s just so easy for somebody who’s not dealing with a mental-health disease to throw stones,” Morgan says. “From every perspective—financial to emotional—this is pretty much a last resort. Believe me, I’d love the luxury to say, ‘I’m choosing meds because we’re all too busy to deal. The pressure of gymnastics, math, plus viola lessons just got too much.’ But, oh my God.”

Extreme as putting a child on antidepressants may sound, according to new research, parents like Morgan may have science on their side. Some experts now believe that chronic depression can affect children as young as 3 years old. The groundbreaking study, published this month in the journal Archives of General Psychiatry, found that an astonishing 40 percent of depressed 3- to 6-year-olds remained so over the course of two years, an eternity on a child’s clock.

The response to the study has been swift and largely hostile. “It’s ridiculous, the kinds of feedback we’re getting,” says lead author Joan Lubin, a professor of psychiatry at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. “People immediately assume that we’re pushing some kind of preschooler Prozac thing.”"

NPR
September 4, 2009

"A new study shows that dogs and young human babies both make the same classic error in a famous psychology experiment — while wolves raised by people do not.

The experiment was originally devised decades ago by the well-known child psychologist Jean Piaget. He found that if babies 10 months old or younger repeatedly see a toy placed in location A, they will look for the toy there even after watching the toy being placed in location B.

This is called the "A-Not-B Error." By 1 year of age, children have grown out of it. But it's such a weird observation that psychologists have been talking about it for decades. Some think it has to do with how babies perceive the permanence of objects. But others think it has something to do with how infants learn from people."

The Wall Street Journal
September 3, 2009

"One day in January 1986, fourth-grade girls at Marie Murphy School in Wilmette, Ill., were called down to the principal's office.

A stranger was waiting there to ask each girl a question: "Are you on a diet?"

Most of the girls said they were.

"I just want to be skinny so no one will tease me," explained Sara Totonchi.

"Boys expect girls to be perfect and beautiful," said Rozi Bhimani. "And skinny."

I was the questioner that day. As a young Wall Street Journal reporter, I had gone to a handful of Chicago-area schools to ask 100 fourth-grade girls about their dieting habits. Researchers at the University of California at San Francisco were about to release a study showing 80% of fourth-grade girls were dieting, and I wanted to determine: Was this a California oddity, or had America's obsession with slimness reached the 60-pound weight class?"