News related to: speech

Toddlers’ Screen Time Linked to Slower Speech Development, Study Finds

Hand-held screens might delay a child’s ability to form words, based on new research.

Principal researcher Catherine Birken, a pediatrician and scientist at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, gathered her data from well-child visits, the regular checkups that assess a child’s growth, health and development. From 2011 to 2015, she asked the parents of to estimate how much time their children spent each day with hand-held screens, like smartphones, tablets and electronic games. Meanwhile, Birken and her team assessed each child with the Infant Toddler Checklist — a screening tool that looks for signs of delayed communication development. Read more ›

Head Start Benefits Children with Disabilities

Young children with multiple disabilities who are enrolled in Head Start have better literacy, reading and math scores than children who aren’t in the federally funded program, indicates a new study by Michigan State University researchers. Read more ›