Though they may equally yearn for poffertjes, Korean-born Dutch babies are more likely to be able to pronounce kimchi than their Netherlands-born counterparts, an international research team has found. Their study, published in Royal Society Open Science, asked Dutch adoptees, ...
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Go bush with kids this summer, academics urge
Yesterday, six-month-old Leila enjoyed her first ocean swim at Sydney’s Bronte Beach. She squealed with delight as her toes were dipped into the icy water, her smile as broad as the dusky horizon. Aside from her pleasure, there are other ...
More »Study finds womb for epigenetic twin variation
In a real-life daytime television-friendly tale, two sets of separated-at-birth identical Columbian twins – each living with the wrong twin – have been reunited. But that’s not the astounding part of the story. Scientists studied their genes and found that, ...
More »From age 3, researchers can predict who will become an obese criminal on welfare
This week, cross-sector cat fights about ‘dole bludgers’ are back in the news. Fittingly, a study about the effects of early childhood experiences later in life, including in employment, simultaneously arrived. Published in journal Nature Human Behaviour, the Duke University, North ...
More »Media sexualisation of children warps 6-year-old minds, advocate says
New research by Curtin University has shown that girls as young as 6 feel the effects of child sexualisation in media. The researchers, led by Dr Michelle Jongenelis from Curtin’s School of Psychology and Speech Pathology, surveyed Australian girls aged ...
More »Neuroscientists tiff over effects of screen time on young brains
During the early years of a human’s life, trillions of brain-cell connections, called synapses, are formed, thanks to jolts of stimulation. As Donald Hebb’s theory rhymes, “neurons that fire together, wire together.” Brain stimulation can come from just about anything, ...
More »Fact and fiction: the benefits of reading heaps to kids
Victorian libraries want parents of youngsters to don their eyeglasses and get reading aloud. Their new campaign, 1000 Books Before School, aims for parents to recite this many tomes between childbirth and the commencement of school, to instill a love of ...
More »Food advertising fattens up obesity-prone children
About one-quarter of Australian children are obese or overweight, and recent research has found it may not be entirely them or their parents’ fault. Instead, a combination of unfortunate genetics and advertising is partially to blame, a study has found. ...
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