TL;DR: In a small Polish trial of 22 children aged 6 to 9 with coordination problems, coordination exercises with and without moves that cross the body’s center line both improved movement planning and two-sided coordination. Final scores were about the same in both groups. Key Findings 22 children finished: Out of 32 who started, split …
TL;DR: In 3 large birth studies covering 5.3 million children, kids whose mothers had type 1 or type 2 diabetes before pregnancy were about a third more likely to develop epilepsy. Diabetes that first appears during pregnancy showed no clear link, and none of this proves diabetes is the cause. Key Findings 3 studies, 5.3 …
TL;DR: A 2026 mouse study in Gene Therapy used an adeno-associated virus 9 (AAV9) vector to deliver human FMR1 and reduced sound-triggered seizures, excessive digging, and gamma-frequency electroencephalography (EEG) power in selected dose and route groups. The outcomes came from separate experiments, and high-dose intravenous treatment without immunosuppression caused excess deaths. Key Findings Adolescent seizure …
TL;DR: A 2026 Developmental Psychology randomized-trial follow-up found that children assigned to high-quality foster care after severe early deprivation had better adaptive functioning at age 18, especially in communication and socialization, than children who remained in care as usual. Key Findings Trial follow-up: The analysis used the Bucharest Early Intervention Project, a randomized trial comparing …
TL;DR: A 2026 randomized trial in Molecular Autism found that a culturally adapted parent-implemented social communication program was linked to language, social-functioning, parent self-efficacy, and stress gains in Chinese-speaking autistic preschoolers, with no consistent advantage for therapist-led online groups over self-study across most outcomes. Key Findings Chinese preschoolers randomized: 112 autistic children aged 24-60 months …
TL;DR: A 2026 systematic review and meta-analysis in Journal of Medical Internet Research found that care robots showed a low-certainty reduction in neuropsychiatric symptoms, but six other pooled outcome domains did not reach statistical significance. Key Findings 34 randomized trials: The review included 34 randomized controlled studies across 17 countries, with 2,476 participants. 20 meta-analyzed …
TL;DR: A 2026 study in eLife found that infants’ brains responded more strongly to structured children’s music than shuffled music by 3 months, while clearer music-linked movement patterns appeared mainly by 12 months. Key Findings 79 infants tested: Researchers recorded electroencephalography (EEG), a scalp measure of brain electrical activity, and video-based body movement in 3 …
TL;DR: A 2026 mouse and cell study in Nature found that developing neurons can generate DNA double-strand breaks while moving through narrow brain tissue during migration, then usually repair those breaks without cell death. Key Findings Developing neurons: The study tracked cerebellar granule neurons, Purkinje cells, and cortical neurons during normal brain development. Confined migration: …
TL;DR: A 2026 Neuron study proposed that developing brain cells can gain positional information partly from lineage, because cells descended from the same progenitor tend to stay near one another as tissue grows. Key Findings Lineage as position signal: The model argues that shared ancestry can help cells infer where they are without relying only …
TL;DR: A 2026 mouse study in Nature found that the astrocyte glucocorticoid receptor pathway helped mature visual cortex circuitry and restricted ocular dominance plasticity, linking light exposure, stress-hormone input, and astrocyte-driven circuit closure. Key Findings 70,907 cells profiled: SHARE-seq mapped RNA expression and chromatin accessibility across visual cortex development in normal-reared and dark-reared mice. Five …
