A new study has found that viewing a DVD touted as being a "playful introduction to words and sign language" does not improve language skills in toddlers. Several times a week for six weeks, a number of one- to two-year-old participants watched the Baby Wordsworth DVD from the Walt Disney Company's Baby Einstein series. Afterwards, researchers tested their language skills as well as those of children who did not watch the program and concluded that there was no difference in language acquisition between the two groups. On average, toddlers from both groups understood about 20 of the 30 words highlighted in the DVD and spoke 10. Discuss
Each year, nearly 100 young athletes in the US die, often in the midst of competition, of sudden cardiac death. The results of two independent US studies suggest that screening high school and college athletes for heart abnormalities with an electrocardiogram may be a cost-effective way to identify at-risk youth and save lives. Italy instituted mandatory screening of all young athletes in the early 1980s, and since then such deaths have dropped ten-fold.
More than one quarter of the total calories that American kids consume come from snacks. Snacking has become so frequent in the US, an average of three times a day on top of the standard three meals a day, that children are trending toward constant eating. Between 1977 and 2006, children increased their caloric intake by an average of 113 calories a day, and more of these calories are coming from salty snacks and candy. The childhood obesity rate, meanwhile, has risen to more than 16 percent.
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