study

Professor Murray Straus, lead author of the study, declared, "All parents want smart children. This research shows that avoiding spanking and correcting misbehavior in other ways can help that happen. The results of this research have major implications for the well being of children across the globe."

It may be noted that male circumcision is the amputation of some or all of the foreskin called prepuce from the penis.

Dr Helen Weiss informs, “Male circumcision is commonly practiced and will continue to occur for religious, cultural and medical reasons. There is a clear need to improve safety of male circumcision at all ages through improved training or re-training for both traditional and medically trained providers.”

“And it must be ensured that providers have adequate supplies of necessary equipment and instruments for safe circumcision,” he adds.

"This study suggests that with appropriate guidance from a trained adult, young children are capable of learning a great deal about their emotions and skills for handling their emotions effectively and those skills can have direct, positive benefits for their functioning in school." said Peter Wyman, Ph.D., lead author of the study and associate professor of Psychiatry at the Medical Center.

226 children studied
The study looked at 226 students, facing behavioral or social problems at school, from two different elementary schools.

Weis added, "For boys with games, scores remain relatively stable. You don't see the typical development in reading and writing."

Details of study
The scientists conducted a study on young children in between the ages of 6 to 9 years looking at the short-term effects of owning a video console on the academic development of the child and found that boys with access to video games are slow learners when it comes to both reading and math.

Chelsea Polis, lead researcher at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, said that readily available emergency contraception had no impact on the pregnancy rate.

She added, “Our review suggests that strategies for advance provision of emergency contraception which have been tested to date do not appear to reduce unintended pregnancy at the population level.”

Hearing scientist, Dr. Daniel Polley from the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, United States, the senior study author, said, “An analogous problem may exist in the realm of hearing, in that children commonly experience a buildup of viscous fluid in the middle ear cavity, called otitis media with effusion, which can degrade the quality of acoustic signals reaching the brain and has been associated with long-lasting loss of auditory perceptual acuity."

The women were further divided in two groups randomly. Mothers in the first group were given an eight week "Mother and Baby" program, involving physiotherapist supervised exercises combined with a parental education program.

However, the women in the other group were only given the written parental education material.

All the women in the study were investigated for psychological fitness and depression symptoms using the Positive Affect Balance Scale and the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale respectively after the completion of the program.

They theorize kids with brain damage may use gesticulation to signal the need for assistance in developing language and those using fewer gestures are inclined to develop spoken vocabulary more slowly.

Susan Levine, the Stella M. Rowley Professor in Psychology at the University of Chicago, one of the authors of the study declared, “Gesture may be a promising diagnostic tool for identifying those children with pre or perinatal brain lesions whose language delays are likely to persist at a time when they are saying very little.

Study of 557 pregnant women
The study, a prospective cohort research funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, looked at 557 expecting women from different cities including Boston, Baltimore and New York.

The sample largely consisted of ethnic minorities, out of which 20 percent were those living under poverty line. Almost all the families had at least one of the parents having an asthmatic or allergic medical history.