The Chatterbox

The Chatterbox

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archives

January 26, 2011
Little Kids Better at Mobile Apps than Shoe-Tying
I don't remember how old I was when I learned to tie my shoes. And I still don't really know how to use a mobile app (I'm one of the very few people who still doesn't have a smart phone.) But still-- this new study is most definitely a sign of the times. A new study has found that more young children know how to play a smartphone app than tie their shoes. The study polled 1,000 mothers of children aged from two to five from several countries and found that 19 percent of the children could naviagate a mobile app while only 9 percent knew how to tie their shoes. It doesn't...
Computers, Family Time, Life Skills
January 11, 2011
Study Suggests Autism Risk Increases With Close Pregnancies
 According to the CDC, autism spectrum disorders have drastically risen in the past decade, and now affect nearly 1 in 10 children. The cause is unknown, and it seems every time I turn on the television, there is another newly-released study that points to another possible risk or cause. And the latest is pretty scary-- a study published in the journal Pediatrics has found that closely spaced pregnancies might raise the risk of  the second child having autism. The latest study is based on the analysis of 66,000 second born children. According to the study, babies born within a year...
Autism; Early Signs of Autism; Diagnosing Autism
January 4, 2011
Study Shows Obesity Starts Before Age One
I was a chubby baby. I mean, who wasn't? "Baby fat"" is a common (and adorable) part of infancy. But a new study is saying that many babies have too much of that adorable roly-poly chubbiness and are, in fact, considered obese. That's right. Many babies are no longer toting around "baby fat"-- they're just plain old obese. According to the most recent issue of the Journal of Health Promotion, 32 percent of 9 month old babies are already overweight or obese. And, according to the same study, the trend continues as the babies grow older, with 34 percent of...
Obesity; Health; Childhood Obesity; Good Nutrition