Soft porn music videos on television. Girls mini-mags featuring fashion and celebrity gossip at the supermarket checkout. Porn at eye-level in the petrol station. Billboards on the trips in between. As…
Breastfeeding generally falls under the jurisdiction of mothers, so I decided to ask a group of mothers I see regularly on Saturday morning what they thought of the recent Time magazine cover portraying…
Children with Specific Language Impairment have difficulties learning language for no discernible reason.
runintherain/ Flickr
Language development is a truly remarkable phenomenon. But for a small number of kids, the words don’t come so easily. Most children acquire their first words around 12 months of age, start to string words…
Children aren’t suited to adult-style fitness programs using exercise bikes, treadmills and rowers.
Axel Bu hrmann
With one in five Australian preschool-age children now overweight or obese, it’s no wonder kids’ weight is so often in the media spotlight. While the causes of obesity are complex and multifactorial, it’s…
What parent can pass up the chance to boost their child’s intelligence by putting on some nice classical music? The popular idea that IQ scores can be raised by listening to Mozart is a case study in how…
Struggling to read? You may not be using your brain effectively.
Flickr/Lab2112
Almost half of all Australians aged 15-74 years had literacy skills below the level required to participate effectively in our society, according to a 2008 study from the Australian Bureau of Statistics…
Quality relationships and time spent together is what’s important when it comes to children’s wellbeing.
Flickr/disgustipado
The media often blame a lot of society’s problems on the break down of traditional family structures and the increase in single parent homes. When fathers no longer live at home, policy makers focus on…
In last night’s ABC program, The Slap, an impulsive slap changed everything. A man struck someone else’s child at a barbecue provoking a legal challenge. In real life, that would be an assault, though…
Antidepressants double the chance of a young person making a suicide attempt.
Flickr/kamera kz
In early 2009, two 16-year-old Queensland girls tragically hanged themselves within weeks of each other. The girls’ lives were plagued with abuse, self-harm and illicit drug use, and their deaths raised…
Women with polycystic ovary syndrome, which can make it hard to conceive, are more likely to have parents who suffer from heart disease and hypertension, a study has found.
Flickr/Thomas van Ardenne
Women diagnosed with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), an endocrine disorder that can cause fertility problems, are more likely to have parents with heart disease, hypertension or a stroke, a new study…
Higher maternal diet quality in the year before pregnancy was associated with lower risk for neural tube defects, the study found.
Flickr/Aldo Risolvo
Women who stick to a healthy diet in the year before falling pregnant may be less likely to have a baby with birth defects, a new study has found. Doctors have long counseled pregnant women to consider…
Despite ideas to the contrary, the evidence shows that texting does not make us bad spellers.
Flickr/lanier67
Children and teenagers today do all the things that children and teenagers have more or less always done – they talk to their friends, have dinner with the family, and watch TV. However, as even the casual…
US researchers say they have identified at least two distinct types of autism, paving the way for new and more targeted treatments. Autism, a neurobiological disorder that impairs social interaction skills…
The study claims an association between infant reactions and adult anxiety is due to temperament rather than shaped by the environment.
MRS.HART/Flickr
A paper published earlier this week in the journal Molecular Psychiatry claims reactions to unfamiliar sounds, smells and objects at four-months could predict the development of anxiety disorders later…
Can an infant formula ever really mimic breast milk?
Flickr/Tom Carmony
A new infant formula that aims to mimic the nutritional value of breast milk is under development at CSIRO, but breastfeeding advocates say research dollars could be better spent supporting women’s attempts…
Professor, Canada Research Chair in Determinants of Child Development, Owerko Centre at the Alberta Children’s Hospital Research Institute, University of Calgary
Director, Center for Community Child Health Royal Children's Hospital; Professor, Department of Paediatrics, University of Melbourne; Theme Director Population Health, Murdoch Children's Research Institute
Assistant professor, School of Psychology, Scientist, Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario Research Institute, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of Ottawa