In Wisconsin, a new initiative is transforming the landscape of neonatal care by making genetic testing more accessible for critically-ill newborns. The Baby Badger Network (BBN) is a team effort among healthcare providers to break down barriers to genetic testing and ensure timely diagnosis and care for their most vulnerable patients.
Infant and Childhood Development
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.
Rethinking fraction instruction: New study shows young children’s brains are wired to understand ratios – and it could change the way fractions are taught.
Even before formal schooling, children’s brains can grasp ratios as holistic magnitudes—suggesting they’re naturally wired to understand foundational fraction concepts like comparing amounts.
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.
Decisiones de crianza que valen la pena considerar según la ciencia del desarrollo
English Version Por Charlene N. Rivera-Bonet Este artículo es un resumen de un ensayo escrito por Seth Pollak, PhD, y Megan Gunnar, PhD, para la revista Daedelus. Puede ser difícil – y abrumador – tomar …
Caregiving decisions worth dwelling on according to developmental science
A common – and actually important – question caregivers ask is when is the right time to introduce children to a specific experience – foods, activities, languages, motor skills, germs, and more.
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.
Behind the scenes of research participation at the Waisman Center: Infant Learning Lab
The lab focuses on studying how infants and young children learn language, learn the meaning of words, find patterns in language and track the properties of speech.
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.