Physical development

Epigenetics and transgenerational inheritance – the next developmental psychology breakthrough, or is it bunkum? Recent research proposes that what we experience in our lifetime can modify our DNA, and that these changes can be passed on to future generations. Whilst a lot of attention is on the human genome, it is apparent, at least to […]

ADHD is getting quite a run in NT&C’s blog posts. So far, we have looked at the role played by the mother’s diet during gestation and discussed the idea that the child with ADHD does not deliberately choose to behave as they do. This, the third on the topic of ADHD, looks at the seemingly […]

I haven’t got a musical bone in my body … how can I possibly help children develop their own musical creativity? In order to ascertain how the kinder teachers integrated music with other elements of their programs, lecturer in music at North-West University, Potchefstroom, South Africa, Mignon van Vreden, has been exploring the teaching practices […]

1. A lot of brain architecture is shaped during the first three years after birth. However, despite a widespread belief to the contrary, the window of opportunity for brain development does not close on a child’s third birthday. While the regions of the brain dedicated to higher-order functions, which involve most social, emotional, and cognitive […]

The weight debate goes on... The association between Body Mass Index (BMI) and child development has been recently investigated in over seven and a half thousand South Australian children at school entry. Unlike many previous studies which combined groups of both thin and healthy weight children as the baseline, this study differentiated between thinness and [...]