What is Number Sense and How Does it Relate to Math Skills?

April 20, 2010 by Bill Jenkins, Ph.D Let’s talk about the Approximate Number System, or just "the ANS." The ANS is the instinctive ability to nonverbally represent numbers. We constantly use this capability in every day decision making, such as choosing the shorter checkout line at the store or wanting to try a meal at a crowded restaurant. In these situations, our gut decisions...

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Ultrasound and Autism

 Written by: Dr. Michael Merzenich      A former UCSF medical student, Carolyn Rees, now a doc in rural Idaho, wrote me a very informative letter — and raised several interesting questions — that are definitely worth a little discussion here. Dr. Rees asked: Is there any evidence that ultrasound examination can affect brain development? In fact,...

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Nature AND Nurture

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Childhood stimulation key to brain development, study finds

Alok Jha, science correspondent The Guardian, Sunday 14 October 2012 Twenty-year research project shows that most critical aspect of cortex development in late teens was stimulation aged four An early childhood surrounded by books and educational toys will leave positive fingerprints on a person's brain well into their late teens, a two-decade-long research study has shown. Scientists...

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Autism Risk Linked To Space Between First And Second Pregnancy

Written by Christian Nordqvist A second child is three times more likely to be diagnosed with autism if they are born within twelve months of their siblings, compared to those born three or more years apart, researchers from the Lazarsfeld Center for the Social Sciences at Columbia University, New York revealed in the journal Pediatrics. The investigators gathered information on 660,000 second children born in California between 1992 to 2002. Sociologist Peter Bearman, and team set out to find out whether there might be a link between the...

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It is Not Only Cars That Deserve Good Maintenance: Brain Care 101

By: Alvaro Fernandez Last week, the US Car Care Coun­cil released a list of tips on how to take care of your car and “save big money at the pump in 2008.” You may not have paid much atten­tion to this announce­ment. Yes, it’s impor­tant to save gas these days; but, it’s not big news that good main­te­nance habits will improve the per­for­mance of a car, and extend its...

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Brain Plasticity: How learning changes your brain

By: Dr. Pascale Michelon You may have heard that the brain is plas­tic. As you know the brain is not made of plas­tic! Neu­ro­plas­tic­ity or brain plas­tic­ity refers to the brain’s abil­ity to CHANGE through­out life. The brain has the amaz­ing abil­ity to reor­ga­nize itself by form­ing new con­nec­tions between brain cells (neurons). In addi­tion to genetic fac­tors,...

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Working Memory and the Classroom

Why it is important to assess Working Memory in an educational setting Published on June 11, 2012 by Tracy P. Alloway, Ph.D. in Keep It in Mind As a psychologist, I have spent over a decade investigating how Working Memory is crucial to learning. Throughout this journey, I have the privilege of working closely with educators and parents and I am grateful to those who have...

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Working Memory in Any Language: Is It the Same?

Published on February 13, 2012 by Tracy P. Alloway, Ph.D. Working memory is critical for many activities at school, from complex subjects such as reading comprehension, mental arithmetic, and word problems to simple tasks like copying from the board and navigating the halls. We have a limited space for processing information, and the size of various individuals' working...

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How Exercise Could Lead to a Better Brain

By GRETCHEN REYNOLDS Published: April 18, 2012 The value of mental-training games may be speculative, as Dan Hurley writes in his article on the quest to make ourselves smarter, but there is another, easy-to-achieve, scientifically proven way to make yourself smarter. Go for a walk or a swim. For more than a decade, neuroscientists and physiologists have been gathering...

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Behavioral Techniques for Children With ADHD

Learning behavior management techniques is considered to be an essential part of any successful ADHD treatment program for children. Most experts agree that combining medication treatments with extended behavior management is the most effective way to manage ADHD in children and adolescents. There are three basic categories or levels of ADHD behavioral training for...

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CDC: U.S. kids with autism up 78% in past decade

By Miriam Falco, CNN March 29, 2012 (CNN) -- The number of children with autism in the United States continues to rise, according to a new report released Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The latest data estimate that 1 in 88 American children has some form of autism spectrum disorder. That's a 78% increase compared to a decade ago, according...

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Understanding Why Autistic People May Reject Social Touch

By Maia Szalavitz  March 19, 2012 One of the hardest challenges for families facing autism is the problem of touch. Often, autistic children resist hugging and other types of physical contact, causing distress all around. Now, a new study offers insight into why some people shrug off physical touches and how families affected by autism may learn to share hugs without...

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The Truth About Video Games and the Brain: What Research Tells Us

February 9, 2012 by Bill Jenkins, Ph.D We’ve all seen the news reports, but how do video games really affect the brain? The short answer is this: researchers are working on it. While a great many studies have been done, science has a long way to go before we fully understand the impact video games can have. The brain is a malleable, “plastic” structure that can change...

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5 Tips for Talking to Children at Play

By Marissa Rasavong As educators of young children, we are charged with weighty responsibilities, such as increasing students' vocabulary, facilitating purposeful play, and promoting social-emotional skills. Scary but true: What we say (and do not say) during play-based learning can make a big difference for our students. In our busy classrooms, it is easy to slip into communication...

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Childhood dyspraxia: James' story

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Autistic Girl Expresses Unimaginable Intelligence

A sharing from an autistic girl: "I am autistic, but that is not who i am. Take time to know me, before you judge me." ...

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The Upside of Dyslexia

By ANNIE MURPHY PAUL      (author of “Origins.” She is at work on a book about the science of learning.) Published: February 4, 2012 THE word “dyslexia” evokes painful struggles with reading, and indeed this learning disability causes much difficulty for the estimated 15 percent of Americans affected by it. Since the phenomenon of “word blindness” was first...

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Developmental Coordination Disorder Often Misdiagnosed As ADHD

13 Feb 2012 Children showing difficulty carrying out routine actions, such as getting dressed, playing with particular types of games, drawing, copying from the board in school and even typing at the computer, could be suffering from developmental coordination disorder (DCD), and not necessarily from ADHD or other more familiar disorders, points out Prof. Sara...

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