A study in today’s issue of Pediatrics, the official journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics,  reveals that boys are more concerned now than in the past with building their bodies up to look more muscular.  Data from around 1400 boys (average age 14), was collected regarding their muscle-building behaviors.  While the data revealed that both girls and boys...Read More

A new study reported in The Journal of Pediatrics, reports that exercise may benefit children with ADHD.  In this study, kids with ADHD were matched with a same-age, same-socio-economic status group of “normal” children.  The groups engaged in two experimental conditions:  one day then engaged in 20 minutes of quiet reading, and the next day...Read More

Children’s author Frank Cottrell Boyce, who, this week, won an award from the British national newspaper The Guardian for best fiction book for children, says that the way reading is being taught in the schools today risks putting children off of reading for the rest of their lives.  In particular, he criticizes the use of standardized...Read More

In an Education Week article entitled “Studies Link Students’ Boredom to Stress,”  Ulrike E. Nett, a student motivation researcher at the University of Konstanz, Germany, is quoted as saying:  “Although teachers try to create interesting lessons, they must be aware that despite their best intentions, some students may still perceive interesting lessons as boring….What is imperative...Read More

For almost two decades now, I’ve been criticizing the diagnosis of ADHD and the use of Ritalin and other psychostimulants with children (see, for example, my book The Myth of the ADD Child).  Now, a new report in The New York Times today, says that physicians are starting to prescribe these drugs to poor children...Read More