Bilingualism may be key to helping children from low-income families improve their focus and concentration, giving them an academic advantage over their monolingual peers, according to a recent study by an international team of researchers, including York University Professor Ellen Bialystok. “For children living in poverty, there are often conditions present that can negatively affect […]
Bullying is bad for the brain. It has the potential to change and damage the brain, causing lifelong consequences. Professor Jean Clinton of McMaster University will discuss how toxic stress, such as that caused by bullying, can have long-lasting effects for children, at PREVNet’s sixth annual bullying prevention conference next week. Debra Pepler Creating Healthy […]
Youth with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) experience higher rates of bullying, which are associated with a higher incidence of mental health issues, according to a study in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders this month by York researchers. “Very little research has been done to assess the relationship between bullying and mental health in youth with […]
All bilingual children – regardless of the languages they speak – show cognitive advantages over their English-only peers, although they may experience weakness in areas like vocabulary acquisition, says a new study by York University researchers. The study, published today in the journal Child Development, examined the effects of specific language pairings on children’s verbal and […]
York psychology Professor Jonathan Weiss (MA '02, PhD ’07) has recently been awarded a Canadian Psychological Association (CPA) President’s New Researcher Award in recognition of his contribution to psychological knowledge in Canada. The award is, in part, based on the researcher’s record of early career achievement. For Weiss, that encompasses the research on developmental disabilities that […]
Long the goal of marriage, "happily ever after" is being reimagined by books and movies as the chief export of divorce, wrote Postmedia News July 12. A leading Canadian divorce researcher, however, warns that escapism carries a high price, if not for couples who've survived a split than for those teetering on the edge of […]
Topics include formation of child soldiers in Uganda and how children use creative work to construct identity Two graduates will present their theses – and compete for prizes – at the Graduate Program in Education Spring Colloquium May 26. Opiyo Oloya (right) (PhD ’10) and master’s graduand Farra Yasin will explain their final academic projects […]
If you follow the advice below, chances are, your son will turn into the kind of man you want him to be, wrote WomensDay.com May 11, in a story about parenting advice for mothers: Encourage him to read novels. Ongoing studies at York University [by psychology Professor Raymond Mar and colleagues in the Faculty of […]
The Ontario Hockey Federation's decision to ban bodychecking will likely draw more players to the game and keep others from dropping out, wrote The Canadian Press May 6 (via Global Toronto): The federation is making the change – which affects players between the ages of 6 and 21 – in an effort to create a […]
Some 24 outside agencies came to the inaugural York Autism Research Alliance’s Research Showcase at York last week to hear what researchers were working on – everything from isolating three to 20 genes potentially responsible for Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) to looking at how children with ASD process visual and auditory information. “The take home […]
Punishment isn’t the answer for kids who learned to bully at home, says a Toronto psychology professor, wrote Halifax’s Chronicle-Herald April 9. "If a child is bullied at home by his or her parents or siblings, they’re going to learn the patterns they need to learn about the use of power and aggression in relationships," […]
Income-splitting for families with dependent children under 18 is a huge policy initiative for Stephen Harper’s majority-hungry Conservative party, wrote the Financial Post March 28, in a story outlining the details of the plan. So huge, you wonder why it wasn’t the centrepiece of last week’s dead-on-arrival federal budget. But the Family Tax Cut plan […]
A new research initiative involving a partnership between York University and Southlake Regional Health Centre in Newmarket will see feature leading scientists from the University serving as embedded researchers at the hospital. York Professors Chris Ardern, Imogen Coe, Paul Ritvo and Lauren Sergio will work on site for one to two days a week with hospital clinicians to […]
Not so long ago, many in the medical profession thought infants didn’t feel pain, and whether it was a heel prick or open heart surgery, pain relief was not required. York psychology Professor Rebecca Pillai Riddell (BA Spec. Hons. '96), had a different take – that infants did experience pain and it was important to figure out […]
How people cope with traumatic events varies widely between individuals, and the impact on a family can be long lasting and devastating. Now there is a new resource coming out of York University for people seeking information on what to do when faced with the effects of trauma. Released today, The Trauma and Attachment Report […]
One of the toughest challenges a parent faces when a child dies is to learn how to parent the surviving children, and the task begins immediately, according to York University psychology Professor Stephen Fleming, wrote the Times of India and other newspapers and websites in the US and South Asia Feb. 16: From the moment […]
One of the toughest challenges a parent faces when a child dies is to learn how to parent the surviving children – and the task begins immediately, according to York University psychology Professor Stephen Fleming. From the moment their child dies, parents are faced with the two extremes of loss and life – the suffocating […]
In the late 1800s, German psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus set out to memorize hundreds of nonsense syllables and discovered it was more efficient to space out his study sessions than to try to learn long lists in one sitting [wrote The Globe and Mail Feb. 7]: Hundreds of studies carried out since have established the power […]
Some schools are discouraging close friendships in the hopes of preventing bullying, wrote Diane Peters in TodaysParent.com Jan. 26: It’s not that concerned educators are “out to get” best friends. But they are trying to nudge close pals apart a little bit, so that they don’t become too insular. Twosomes can turn into threesomes, and […]
What should families consider when involving young children in a parent’s funeral? asked the Toronto Star’s ParentCentral.ca Jan. 20, in a story about the funeral of Toronto Police officer Ryan Russell, which his two-year-old son Nolan attended: Opinions on the subject have shifted from the days when children weren’t expected to attend funerals at all. […]