Scientific American reports today on research claiming that babies as young as seven months have an inherent sense of number. The scientists found that when infants hear someone saying “Look” either two or three times, they will chose to spend more time looking at a video displaying the matching number of faces, rather than one […]
Adoptive Family magazine has a good article on how to deal with insensitive comments relatives may make about adopted children. They recommend that you: Appoint yourself ambassador of adoption. “Immunize” yourself before family encounters. Do a background check [with other relatives, not the FBI] on problematic relatives. Hold your ground firmly but with compassion. Much
Does anyone else find it disturbing that the motto of Goldfish crackers is “The Snack that Smiles Back?” I’m sorry, but vegetarian or not, I don’t want my food smiling at me. (Actually, at our house we’re partial to Annie’s Cheddar Bunnies when it comes to snack crackers. Cute and bunny shaped, but they don’t
Six gay male penguins at a zoo in Germany have been rejecting advances of females sent to mate with them. Gay rights groups were apparently upset when the females were introduced, but the zoo claims they are simply trying to form at least one fertile couple and a baby, not to pry the male penguins
I happened to catch NPR’s Morning Edition today, something that happens only rarely when my son is preoccupied and doesn’t notice that I haven’t put on one of his Sesame Street or Music Together CDs. There was a piece about research on fetal cells. Scientists now believe that these cells linger in a bio-mom’s body
The American Academy of Pediatrics yesterday released updated guidelines on calcium intake for children. The AAP reemphasizes that calcium during childhood and adolescence determines peak bone mass development, which may help reduce the risk of fractures and osteoporosis later. They recommend three age-appropriate servings of dairy products per day (four for adolescents), preferably low-fat dairy
What do these two things have in common? Risk to children. A new study in the journal Pediatrics determined that increased time watching television means decreased time interacting with parents and siblings and playing creatively. For older children, it also means less time spent on homework. The researchers claim this is the first evidence to
Researchers at Florida State and Vanderbilt Universities claim parents have significantly higher levels of depression than adults without children. More surprisingly, this does not change when the kids leave home, and may in fact increase. Parents who do not have custody of their minor children may also experience greater depression than those who do. Parents’
Pioneering feminist author and one of the founders of NOW, Betty Friedan, died yesterday at the age of 85. I was a feminist before I (knew I) was a lesbian. I cannot claim, however, that Friedan’s seminal work, The Feminine Mystique influenced me directly. By the time I was old enough to read it, it
There’s been a lot in the media recently about how boys are struggling in the U. S. educational system. Newsweek ran a cover story in its January 30 issue titled “The Trouble With Boys,” and PBS this month aired the documentary “Raising Cain: Boys in Focus,” based on the book of the same name. Some
