One of the most stressful questions a new parent confronts is, “Who’s going to take care of my baby when I go back to work?” Figuring out the answer to that question is often not easy. When NPR, along with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, surveyed more than 1,000 parents nationwide …

If you have young kids in school, or talk with teachers of young children, you’ve likely heard the refrain — that something’s changed in the early grades. Schools seem to expect more of their youngest students academically, while giving them less time to spend in self-directed and creative play. A big new study provides the first national, empirical data to …

Erika Christakis’ new book, The Importance of Being Little, is an impassioned plea for educators and parents to put down the worksheets and flash cards, ditch the tired craft projects (yes, you, Thanksgiving Handprint Turkey) and exotic vocabulary lessons, and double-down on one, simple word: Play. That’s because, she writes, “the distinction between early education and official school seems to …

Although her oldest child, Ben, is 10 years old, Andrea Scher, 44, feels like a new mom again. Scher suffered from maternal depression after Ben was born, eventually recovering with the help of antidepressants and psychotherapy. She was understandably relieved that her depression didn’t return after the birth of her second son. But now she’s struggling again. Once more, Scher …

Pregnancy changes a woman’s brain, altering the size and structure of areas involved in perceiving the feelings and perspectives of others, according to a first-of-its-kind study published Monday. Most of these changes remained two years after giving birth, at least into the babies’ toddler years. And the more pronounced the brain changes, the higher mothers scored on a measure of …

Many parents these days seem to obsessively celebrate their children’s developments by snapping photo after photo on their cellphone cameras. Me? I record my son’s words in my notebook, on my phone, in my laptop. I want the audio record, and the written one; they capture one of the most evanescent aspects of childhood – the linguistic shooting star of …

These days, even 3-year-olds wear headphones, and as the holidays approach, retailers are well stocked with brands that claim to be “safe for young ears” or to deliver “100 percent safe listening.” The devices limit the volume at which sound can be played; parents rely on them to prevent children from blasting, say, Rihanna at hazardous levels that could lead …

Dyslexia is the most common learning disability in the United States. It touches the lives of millions of people, including me and Thomas. Just like Thomas, I spent much of my childhood sitting in a little chair across from a reading tutor. Today, Thomas is working with his tutor in an office building in northwest Washington, D.C. The suite they’re …

Drug education is the only part of the middle school curriculum I remember — perhaps because it backfired so spectacularly. Before reaching today’s legal drinking age, I was shooting cocaine and heroin. I’ve since recovered from my addiction, and researchers now are trying to develop innovative prevention programs to help children at risk take a different road than I did. …

What’s Going on Inside the Teen Brain? Why we need to give teens the space and the safety to grow. Some 36 million people in the US are between 12 and 24 years of age—a vital period of development many neuroscientists call the age of the adolescent brain, or the teenage brain. We’ve recently seen a profusion of books (see …

There are rating systems for hospitals, nursing homes and doctors. So why is it so hard to compare providers of child care? Part of the reason is that there are no nationally agreed-upon standards for what determines the quality of child care. The standards that do exist are formulated in each state, and they vary widely. For example, some states …

Just about every day, genetic counselor Shawn Fayer heads to the maternity ward at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and tries to convince new parents to give him a blood sample. Fayer is offering gene sequencing for newborns. It gives parents a tantalizing look at their baby’s genetic information. New parents Lauren and Ian Patrick, from Marion, Mass., were …

Life is pretty busy for Mike Buchmann, a high school art teacher and football coach, and his wife Shannon, who works as an assistant controller at a small private college near their home in Mishawaka, Ind. Everyone is out the door by 7:45 each morning: Mike shuttles their two older kids to before-school care, while Shannon drops off their 14-month-old …

It’s a classic which-came-first question: Is the child not getting enough sleep because of problem behaviors, especially at bedtime, or is the child behaving problematically because of not getting enough sleep? The answers are most likely yes and yes, and the back-and-forth currents can drag a child down developmentally. In an editorial in JAMA Pediatrics in 2015, Michelle M. Garrison, …

Middle school is tough. Bodies change. Hormones rage. Algebra becomes a reality. But there are things schools can do to make life easier for students — like this big study we wrote about showing that K-8 schools may be better for kids than traditional middle schools. But aside from re-configuring an entire school system, are there other ways to make …

Picture this: You’re in the supermarket with your hungry preschooler in tow. As you reach into the dairy case, you spot a sign with a friendly cartoon cow. It reads: “Ask your child: Where does milk come from? What else comes from a cow?” Examples of signs used in the supermarket study to spark parent-child conversation. Temple University Department of …

Increasing numbers of children have high blood pressure, largely as a consequence of their obesity. A growing body of evidence suggests that high blood pressure may impair children’s cognitive skills, reducing their ability to remember, pay attention and organize facts. In the most comprehensive study to date, published on Thursday in The Journal of Pediatrics, 75 children ages 10 to …

Most of you reading this are (or will be) in a caregiving role (personal or professional) with a child who is struggling. When faced with a child or teen you know who suffers from an emotional or behavioral condition—or even if their situation is not “diagnosable,” yet you’re convinced they are struggling in a significant way—then it’s important to consider …

Corporal punishment, also known as “physical discipline,” has become illegal in recent decades in many countries, starting with Sweden in 1979. The United States is not one of those countries, and pediatricians regularly find ourselves talking with parents about why hitting children is a bad idea. The American Academy of Pediatrics officially recommends against physical discipline, saying that evidence shows …

Kids are spending an average four-plus hours a day with screen media; adults check their phones nearly 50 times a day. But what if, instead of distancing us, technology were instead designed to help families bond and children grow? That’s the utopian sales pitch of apps like Povi and Muse: Pay some money, get happier kids. My question is: Does …

As soon as Kristina Dooley’s 5-year-old triplets see an elevator, they race to be the one who gets there first. “When they get to the buttons, elbows start flying,” she says. Almost immediately, she hears the complaint “That’s not fair!” from the child who doesn’t get to hit a button. A child’s list of things that are “not fair” is …

Most children in the United States do not drink enough water, and when it’s hot outside, they may need to drink even more. But getting children to drink water can be a challenge. We spoke with medical experts, coaches, camp counselors and parents to find out how much water kids should drink in the summer, and how adults can help …

Can Attachment Theory Explain All Our Relationships? The most important parenting you’ll ever do happens before your child turns one — and may affect her for the rest of her life. One mother’s journey through the science of attachment. The stage is set: a room with two chairs and some toys on the floor. A mother and her 1-year-old baby …

How to convey your genuine gratitude for the moments you share with your children. Since my daughter, Opal, was just over a year old (she’s now six), I’ve tried to make a point of carving out what we call “special time” with her. This is time that I’m with her with zero interruptions. No email. No break for tea (unless …

Edith, a retired Capitol Hill staffer from Northeast, was at the end of her rope last year over the mayhem her 5-year-old great-grandson Wayne was causing at preschool. “I was on speed dial” at the school, says Edith, who is raising two of her great-grandchildren. “He was hitting kids, destroying the classroom, tearing the ABCs off the wall, just terrorizing …

Two-minute warnings may work well in sports, but they don’t, apparently, work for children. New research shows that giving a child a “two-minute warning” before turning off a video game or TV show does not make it easier for a child to turn away from a screen. In fact, it makes it harder. To learn more about how families manage …

By now, you likely have a go-to coping mechanism for when stress and problems arise. Hopefully it’s something on the healthy side of the spectrum, such as seeking comfort from the ones you love, or getting those endorphins flowing with some exercise. But no matter what way you deal, everyone can use a little extra support in handling life’s challenges …