A new study from researchers at the University of Kansas finds that children who experience informal mentorship from a non-kin adult are less likely to engage in risky behaviors such as physical fighting, shoplifting, and lying. The positive effects of these mentoring relationships were particularly noteworthy when teens were made to feel that they were important and appreciated. According to researchers, participants of the study indicated closeness, a sense of belonging, and an ongoing feeling of importance as the key factors of a successful mentor relationship. The study also indicated that when teens are able to continuously maintain these non-kin mentors, especially if the mentor is a teacher, they are less likely to get in trouble.

The results from this study may be particularly important for organizations that work with children by providing them with a designated mentor: the type of relationship that a child forms with a mentor is just as important as the existence of the relationship itself. The study also found that starting these relationships early in a child’s life is important. Encouraging children to develop relationships with teachers and other community members can go a long way in helping to reduce delinquency in adolescents.

 

Read the Science Daily article

Read the full scientific article in Children and Youth Services Review

A new study published by Proceedings of the National Academies of Science found an unlikely link between musical training and speech processing. Researchers found that specifically, six months of piano lessons were shown to better a child’s speech-sound processing. Children with piano training gained better word discrimination, and in comparison to a reading group, gained better consonant discrimination:

“Even compared to their peers in the extra reading group, children who took piano lessons were significantly better at distinguishing between spoken words that differed by only one consonant, [the researcher] explains. (Both the piano and reading groups performed better than the control group at differentiating between vowels.) This, he says, suggests that piano lessons affect a crucial and complex element of language processing.

Consonants, like ‘T’ and ‘D’, can sound so similar that the human brain has to make a snap decision about what it’s hearing. ‘Consonants require a bit more precision to tell one from another than do vowels,’ [the researcher] says. ‘The biggest benefit showed up where there’s the biggest challenge.’

While this small study was completed with Mandarin-Speaking children, the results certainly indicate the positive effects of musical training for young children.

Read more of the Time article here

Read the full scientific article

A new study published in the Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics has found a significant increase in cases of reported anxiety in children aged 6 to 17. Researchers asked parents whether their child’s doctor has ever told them if their child has anxiety and/or depression. Researchers found that “Based on the parent report, lifetime diagnosis of anxiety or depression among children aged 6 to 17 years increased from 5.4% in 2003 to 8.4% in 2011–2012. Current anxiety or depression increased from 4.7% in 2007 to 5.3% in 2011–2012; current anxiety increased significantly, whereas current depression did not change. ”

Several factors may be playing into the increase in anxiety among our nation’s youth, including the increased role that social media plays in our children’s lives, or pressures from a competitive school environment. One provider interviewed for the Washington Post  article linked below stated “School is putting so much pressure on them with the competitiveness … I’ve seen eighth graders admitted as inpatients, saying they have to choose a career!”

Clink the links below to learn more about this study.

Read the Washington Post Article

Read the full Scientific Article

Taking care of mom’s mental health may be important to the overall development of their children, a new study finds. Wu et al (2018) researched the impact that a mother’s depression can have on a child’s emotional and intellectual development, finding that children with depressed mother’s had significantly lower verbal IQ scores than that of children whose mother was not depressed.

Cheryl Platzman Weinstock writes in Reuters “At age five, children with severely depressed mothers had an average verbal IQ score of 7.3 (on a scale of 1 to 19), compared to a higher score of 7.8 in children without depressed mothers. The discrepancy “might not seem like a big difference, but it is truly significant and important and highly meaningful for children’s learning skills,” [the researchers] told Reuters Health by phone. These children will have a smaller vocabulary and poorer comprehension skills…The study team also found that depressed moms didn’t interact as well with their children. Researchers had observed the mothers’ emotional and verbal communication with their children during spontaneous interactions in the home. They observed how often mothers praised their children, read to them, conveyed positive feelings and hugged their child, among other things. Highly depressed moms were less responsive, affectionate, loving and warm. They didn’t invest emotionally or provide learning materials to their child as much as mothers who were not depressed, the authors write in the journal Child Development.”

While we cannot be certain that mother’s depression is the source of these lower IQ scores, this study certainly highlights the need to focus our attention on the mother’s mental health in addition to children’s overall well-being. Mother’s who screen for depression should be provided with resources and support necessary to combat depressive symptoms, ensuring their child’s development is not impacted!

 

Read the Reuter’s Article here

Read the Full Article in Child Development

In light of this week’s protests from students across the country, exploring the links between civic engagement in adolescence and positive outcomes in later life feels timely. Authors Parissa Ballard, Lindsay Hoyt, and Mark Pachucki published a research study on just that in January of this year. Their study found that adolescents and young adults who were engaged in such activities as volunteering, voting, and activism, were more likely to have higher income and education attainment later in life. Additionally, voting and volunteering were associated with better mental health outcomes.

Lisa Damour, an Ohio-based psychologist and author of “Untangled: Guiding Teenage Girls Through the Seven Transitions Into Adulthood” wrote an article about this study for the New York Times. She notes, “Of course, correlation does not prove causation, but the study makes a case for the benefits of civic engagement. In light of the findings, Parissa Ballard, the study’s lead author… said that ‘having meaningful opportunities to volunteer or be involved in activism may change how young people think about themselves or their possibilities for the future.'”

Read the New York Times article here

Read the full article in Child Development

“Dr. Ian Paul, a professor of pediatrics and public health sciences at Penn State College of Medicine, is one of the leaders of the Insight Study, an intervention which started in 2011 to look at the effects of helping parents learn “responsive parenting” strategies that help them read their babies’ signals…In the intervention, he said, parents learn to recognize what is actually hunger, since hungry babies, of course, need to be fed, and they also learn alternative strategies for soothing babies who are crying for other reasons. A baby who is distressed but not particularly hungry will calm down if given a sweet liquid, which Dr. Paul said could lead to problems later on.”

Read more about the study via The New York Times

Read the full study

It seems that it is becoming a common occurrence for parents to have to discuss violent events of the world with their children. Even though, as a parent, you may try to shield children from learning about these events,  most children have some understanding of what has happened – children overhear as the details of en event are broadcast on our nightly news programs, pick up clues from adults in conversation, or by simply seeing images in magazines/newspapers.  In light of the most recent violent event in Manchester, England, we have decided to draw your attention to some resources to help in talking with your children about these events, as well as helping them to cope with grief, should an event impact you personally:

“Talking with kids about the scary news”

“How children grieve and how parents and other adults can support them”

American Academy of Pediatrics resource page on helping children cope

Do you think you or your child may benefit from therapy or other services in light of a recent event? CT 211

The researchers from UConn KIDS are always working hard and making awesome discoveries! The lead author on a new study, Matthew Hall, share a bit about what his newly published article is all about:

“For a long time, researchers and parents alike have observed that as a whole, deaf children seem to lag behind hearing children of the same age when in comes to “executive function”: a set of cognitive skills that help us flexibly deploy our cognitive resources to regulate our behavior and achieve desired goals. These skills are important predictors of school readiness & academic outcomes, so it’s important to figure out what’s causing these problems so that we can address them more effectively.  If the underlying cause turns out to be deafness itself, as has been proposed by previous studies, then providing early access to sound via hearing technology would be important. But if the underlying cause turns out to be a lack of exposure to language, then provided early access to *language* would be important, and it could be that sign language exposure is a more effective tool than spoken language.  This study addresses the issue of whether the deficits are better explained by access to sound or access to language.  We do so by looking at executive function in children who are deaf (no access to sound) but who are born into Deaf families where ASL is used from birth (full access to language).  This is where the two theories make contrasting predictions.  The results argue against the theory that sound is the critical factor, but are consistent with the theory that language is the crucial factor.  I do need to point out, though, that we can’t say that we’ve *proven* language to be the key.  It also remains to be seen whether deaf children from hearing families will show demonstrable benefit from early exposure to ASL: that’s what we’re hoping to address next.”

You can find the article in the Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education. It was published in print in January of 2017.

 

Dr. Letitia Naigles, a UConn KIDS researcher, is interested in how young children aquire language. Dr. Naigles looks at language development in both typically developing children and children with autism. “My research focuses on the interacting roles of linguistic input and linguistic, cognitive, social, and neurological predispositions in children’s acquisition of word meaning, sentence structure, and discourse patterns” writes Dr. Naigles. One of her most recent publications in the journal Autism Research looks at how brain structure is associated with language ability in preschool-aged boys with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Dr Naigles’ findings  suggest that the strength of the connection between the occipital lobe, which processes what you see, and the temporal lobe, which processes what you hear, is greater in children with larger vocabularies.

The article was published online by Autism Research on March 16, 2017.

A few weeks ago, Sesame Street announced the newest Muppet to join the show – Julia, who has Autism. In the United States, autism occurs in 1 out of every 68 births. With such a high prevalence, the addition of this new Muppet is refreshing.”We wanted to express some of the characteristics of autism in a positive way” and to break down “myths and misconceptions around autism,” said Jeanette Betancourt, Sesame Workshop’s vice president of outreach and educational practices.

We would also like to draw attention to an upcoming event: next week at the Connecticut State Capital is Autism Awareness Day. As UConn KIDS continues to do research on autism, will be attending. We hope to see you there!

All of April is Autism Awareness month, so visit https://www.autism-society.org/ for more ideas on how to get involved in raising awareness for autism.