A new study by researchers at Hasbro Children’s Hospital offers a closer look at the association between childhood sleep-disordered breathing (SDB), including snoring and sleep apnea, and behavioral problems like hyperactivity and anxiety.Published in the April issue of the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, the study revealed that children with SDB who are also overweight, sleep for short periods of time, or have another sleep disorder like insomnia are more likely to have behavior issues. [continue reading…]

Children with and without behavioral problems, as well as autistic children, should be encouraged to talk aloud in classrooms

Parents should not worry when their pre-schoolers talk to themselves; in fact, they should encourage it, says Adam Winsler, an associate professor of psychology at George Mason University. His recent study published in Early Childhood Research Quarterly showed that 5-year-olds do better on motor tasks when they talk to themselves out loud (either spontaneously or when told to do so by an adult) than when they are silent. [continue reading…]

Nearly one in six children in the United States between the ages of 8 and 12 are considered obese, and parents play a major role in the development and maintenance of obesity in their children.Researchers at the University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego) School of Medicine are looking at whether parent-only intervention programs – teaching parents skills to use in helping their children lose weight – might be a more effective method of targeting childhood obesity than sessions which bring parents and children together to work on the problem. [continue reading…]