Child Development News

LAWRENCE — University of Kansas researchers have reported that pregnant women who consumed a supplement of DHA (docosahexaenoic acid), a nutrient added to U.S. infant formulas since 2002, tend to have children with higher fat-free body mass at 5 years old.

A clinical trial of book reading to help kindergarten children with Specific Language Impairment learn words has determined the number of times a child with SLI needs to hear a word to learn it. That would be 36 times or “exposures” compared to 12 times for typically developing children.

The aptly named SWIFT Education Center (Schoolwide Integrated Framework for Transformation), funded by one of the largest grants in KU history of $24 million, has rapidly hit its goals since it was funded by the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs in October 2012.

LAWRENCE — A new, wide-ranging review of available research shows parents and caregivers can improve health outcomes for kids by using mobile-phone apps and text messaging. The research appears in the prestigious, peer-reviewed journal JAMA Pediatrics on March 20. Previous to this investigation, the only across-the-board review of mobile health (mHealth) effectiveness centered on childhood obesity alone.

Researchers estimated that more than 106,000 high-risk early preterm births could be avoided in the U.S. each year if pregnant women took daily supplements of the omega fatty acid.

Beginning in 1995 with the seminal study of vocabulary development by Betty Hart and Todd Risley that revealed a 30 million word gap in what children from the least and more advantaged homes heard by age 3, Life Span Institute researchers have investigated the power of parenting.

LAWRENCE — University of Kansas researchers have found that certain specific parenting practices are significantly associated with the development of communication and language skills in children with Fragile X syndrome. These same parent behaviors are also associated with the growth of socialization and daily living skills of these children. Parenting even mitigated declines often reported in children with FXS beginning in middle childhood.

LAWRENCE — A clinical trial of book reading to help kindergarten children with Specific Language Impairment learn words has determined the number of times a child with SLI needs to hear a word to learn it: 36 times or exposures compared with 12 times for typically developing children. This is the first piece of evidence that could lead to the development of an effective treatment for children with SLI, something that Holly Storkel, who directed the trial, says is a critical need.

Professor Yo Jackson and her team are analyzing data from one of the largest longitudinal studies of foster children ever undertaken. “We know so much more about these children than most research efforts in the past and we are in a great position to tell their stories,” she said.

A National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded study led by University of Kansas Medical Center researchers could lead to a reduction in early preterm births -births before 34 weeks of gestation - which are a major burden on the health care system and a concern for mothers worldwide.