Integrating trauma awareness into early language support

Learning language in early childhood occurs through interaction between children and their caregivers. It is a foundational process that allows children to participate in social interactions, learn from the world, and develop other essential skills such as literacy. Having a language delay or disorder is associated with greater risk for experiencing trauma and vice versa. Furthermore, children’s and caregivers’ trauma histories can impact their individual strengths and needs related to participation in early language intervention.

Atypical infant movements tied to cerebral palsy may signal differences in brain connectivity

Brain connectivity differences linked to atypical infant movements may aid the early prediction of cerebral palsy development after a perinatal brain injury, a new Waisman Center study shows.

Newly funded research to study astrocyte dysfunction in Rett syndrome

The lab of Waisman Center director, Qiang Chang, PhD, professor of medical genetics and neurology, has received $1 million in funding from the Department of Defense to study the dysfunction of astrocytes, a key brain cell that supports neurons, in Rett syndrome.

Memory impairment after severe traumatic brain injury in adolescents related to size and connectivity changes in the hippocampus and beyond.

Memory impairment as a result of a traumatic brain injury (TBI) has long been associated solely with the hippocampus, the brain’s learning and memory center. However, new research published in the journal Brain Imaging and Behavior, reveals that the hippocampus is not acting alone.

Childhood maltreatment leads to flattened cortisol rhythms in adolescence, a costly adaptation to an adverse environment

Adolescents who experience sustained childhood maltreatment show high, inflexible cortisol levels that persist throughout the day in different social contexts, a new study shows. This flattened cortisol rhythm may be a pathway for poorer physical and mental health in youth that experience abuse.

Estrogen receptor alpha mediates protection against hypoxic ischemic brain injury in newborn female mice, study shows

In her practice as a pediatric intensivist, Cengiz noticed that even with similar brain injuries, functional outcomes varied from child to child. “So, I began wondering what could be the potential mechanisms of these differences in outcome”, Cengiz says.