The developing brain has the capacity for a great deal of plasticity. A number of investigators have demonstrated that intellectual and language skills may be in the normal range in children following unilateral perinatal stroke. Questions have been raised, however, about whether these skills can be maintained at the same level as the brain…

"Science Briefs" summarize the findings and implications of a recent study in basic science or clinical research. This Brief summarizes the findings and implications of "Enriched Environment Experience Overcomes the Memory Deficits and Depressive-like Behavior Induced by Early Life Stress" (M. Cui; Y. Yang; J. Zhang; H. Han; W. Ma; H. Li; R. Mao;…

In this article the authors review research on highly stressful environments that are known to support the development and display of aggressive behavior in childhood, adolescence, and beyond. They also examine some of the mechanisms through which such stressful environments may influence adolescents' aggressive behavior. The review concentrates…

Advanced inhibitory control skills have been found in bilingual speakers as compared to monolingual controls ( Bialystok, 1999 ). We examined whether this effect is generalized to an unstudied language group (Spanish-English bilingual) and multiple measures of executive function by administering a battery of tasks to 50 kindergarten children drawn…

Previous research indicates that children from lower socioeconomic backgrounds show deficits in aspects of attention, including a reduced ability to filter irrelevant information and to suppress prepotent responses. However, less is known about the neural mechanisms of group differences in attention, which could reveal the stages of processing at…

Aim: Subcortical band heterotopia (SBH) or "double cortex" is a malformation of cortical development resulting from impaired neuronal migration. So far, research has focused on the neurological, neuroimaging, and genetic correlates of SBH. More recently, clinical reports and small sample studies have documented neuropsychological dysfunction in…

Research in the area of infant development has endless facets of investigation. No one facet of research is more important than another, and all of the findings work in a synchronous fashion to facilitate our understanding of child development. Research on child development has proliferated across the centuries. Infant characteristics like…

The aim of this study was to evaluate if a diagnostic work-up should be recommended for 2-year-old children with developmental language delay (LD), or if the widely chosen "wait and see" strategy is adequate. Children with LD were identified in paediatric practices during routine developmental check-ups using a German parent-report…

For decades researchers have been aware of the extraordinary development of a child's brain during the first five years of life. Recent advances in neuroscience have helped crystallize earlier findings, bringing new clarity and understanding to the field of early childhood brain development. Children are born ready to learn. They cultivate 85…

The second in a series of three articles concerning children's brain development focuses on the organization of the brain. Aspects of the brain's vertical, neocortex, and temporal organization are discussed and references for further reading are provided. (CJ)

During the twentieth century, study of the neurologic development of the fetus and infant has resulted in multiple neurodevelopmental assessments. They have been used both for determination of the integrity of the neonate as well as for assessment of the child's outcome from prenatal and neonatal medical interventions. These models of assessment…

Maintains that Teyler and Fountain's presentation (1987) contains several limitations, namely, that the authors do not (1) distinguish between learning and memory, nor between storage and retrieval; (2) address the role of knowledge-based influences in memory and learning; or (3) employ concepts that can accommodate developmental phenomena in the…

Discusses the consequences of severe malnutrition in young experimental animals. Development of the brain is permanently impaired. Studies of the effects of malnutrition on children are included. (This paper was presented at the Eighth Annual Lecture of the Merrill-Palmer Historical Library in Child Development and Family Life, October 25, 1968.)…

Brain research is complicated, but its message is simple: babies are born learning and what they learn is up to us. New research on infant brain development shows that a child's experiences in the first three years of life have a distinct impact on her later development and learning. Here's why. All babies are born with one organ that is not fully…

Early experience has a powerful and lasting influence on how the brain develops. The physical and chemical conditions that encourage the building of a strong, adaptive brain architecture are present early in life. As brains age, a number of changes lock in the ways information is processed, making it more difficult for the brain to change to other…