Child Development

Increased breast-feeding during the first months of life appears to raise a child's verbal IQ, according to a study of nearly 14,000 children that was released Monday. The study in Archives of General Psychiatry found that 6-year-olds whose mothers were part of a program that encouraged them to breast-feed had verbal IQs that were an average of 7.5 points higher than those of children in a control group.

Researchers with the Santa Monica-based Rand Corp. will be knocking on doors across Los Angeles County seeking families to participate in a nationwide study on the influence of neighborhoods on child social and educational development. The Los Angeles Family and Neighborhood Survey, announced Wednesday, will survey 1,000 families in 65 neighborhoods, interviewing them about health insurance, child care, readiness for school and neighborhood life.

When it comes to memories of infancy, everyone draws a blank. Hardly anyone can recall those opening pages of life's story, when discoveries write themselves into every newborn's brain. Until recently, brain researchers were convinced that babies simply couldn't make any personal memories that lasted, because almost no one can recollect anything that happened to them before age 3.

Wearing little white hard hats, four preschool-age children gleefully hoisted lumps of dirt in the air with small golden shovels as Los Angeles Mission College broke ground Monday on a 27,000-square-foot child development center that will cost $9.1 million. About half the money will come from the $2.2-billion in bond money approved by voters in 2001 and 2003 and used by the Los Angeles Community College District to fund about 110 projects completed to date.

When my oldest daughter was an infant, she turned to a toy cat for comfort; for my younger two children, baby blankets did the trick. For many infants, however, the answer is much closer to home -- literally, right at the tip of their fingers. It's their thumb. Thumb sucking is a normal calming behavior during infancy; at one year of age, nearly 1 in 3 children suck their thumbs. Although many quit spontaneously before they turn 3, an estimated 20% of children continue well beyond this age.

Girls seem to be growing up faster these days, and not just because they dress to show more skin. Compared with their mothers, they actually have more skin to show -- and that added fat seems to be altering their rate of development. Pediatric experts had noticed that girls appeared to be developing breasts (the first outward sign of puberty) at earlier ages -- and that they tended to gain weight around puberty. But no one knew which came first: earlier development or weight gain.

AT an age when most children's parents have just started to consider toilet training, Samuel and Hannah had already completed the task. By 21 months of age, the Rothstein children no longer needed to be reminded to go to the bathroom, and they never had toileting accidents -- day or night. Their mother, Melinda, had taken a somewhat unconventional approach to toilet training. She started her son when he was only 8 months old and her daughter right from birth.

In the center of a field of fake grass, about a dozen 3- and 4-year-olds are attempting to learn soccer -- or a reasonable facsimile. Kicking and chasing after scaled-down balls, some charge ahead with glee, expertly guiding the balls with their feet. Others scoot along hesitantly, their faces masks of intensity. "Score it in the goal! Score it in the goal!" the coach yells excitedly nearby. One boy nails the goal with a single kick, while another takes three to four attempts.

Scientists at Japan's Osaka University have developed a robot that acts like a toddler to study child development. The Child-Robot with Biomimetic Body, or CB2, is designed to move like a child between ages 1 and 3, although it stands just over 4 feet tall and weighs 73 pounds. It changes facial expressions and can rock back and forth. The robot moves smoothly with 56 actuators in lieu of muscle. It has 197 sensors for touch, small cameras working as eyes, and an audio sensor.

Wading into an age-old debate, researchers have found that firstborn children are smarter than their siblings -- and the reason is not genetics, but the way their parents treat them, according to a study published today. The study of 240,000 Norwegian men in the journal Science found the IQs of firstborns were 2 to 3 points higher than that of younger siblings. (The average IQ is 100.