[Source:  Orlando Sun Sentinel via The Autism News]

Since Jack Lebersfeld told the entire sixth grade he has Asperger's syndrome and explained what that meant, his speech has taken on a life of its own that Jack and his parents could have never imagined.

Asperger's is one of the autism spectrum disorders that affects a person's ability to socialize, and that's what was happening to Jack at school. The 11-year-old was being "isolated and picked on," in the words of his friend Spencer Kusel.

[Source:  MSNBC.com/Today]

They may not be able to walk or talk, but they have no problem arching their bodies into the downward dog pose. Yes, toddlers and babies are doing yoga - studios now offer classes for kids as young as 6 weeks old.

Yoga advocates say the classes can help parents and infants bond, and promote development of motor skills. And just as yoga helps adults become more aware of their bodies, yoga can help parents become attuned to their babies wants and needs, said Helen Garabedian, founder of the Itsy Bitsy   

Yoga, a yoga studio for babies and kids, and author of books by the same name.

[Source:  Psypost.org]

While boys generally do better than girls in science and math, some studies have found that girls do better in arithmetic. A new study published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, finds that the advantage comes from girls' superior verbal skills.

"People have always thought that males' advantage is in math and spatial skills, and girls' advantage is in language," says Xinlin Zhou of Beijing Normal University, who cowrote the study with Wei Wei, Hao Lu, Hui Zhao, and Qi Dong of Beijing Normal University and Chuansheng Chen of the University of California-Irvine. "However, some parents and teachers in China say girls do arithmetic better than boys in primary school."

[Source:  The Huffington Post/Teen]

The teenage brain is special. Less plastic than a child's developing brain, but not yet with all of the executive functions of an adult noggin. And that makes them more vulnerable to long-term effects of head injury, according to new research. Especially when it comes to sports-related concussions.

In football, soccer, hockey or rugby, the top-front of the head usually receives the brunt of the blow. And that region is where the all-important executive function areas are forming for teenagers: the frontal cortex.

Fans spanning the map will celebrate - in one way or another - the birthday of Theodor Seuss Geisel, better known to generations of young and once-young readers as children's author "Dr. Seuss":

In his Massachusetts birthplace, Springfield Museums will salute the favorite son with activities begat by his beloved "The Cat in the Hat." In his longtime home of La Jolla, UCSD - the world's main repository of all things Seuss, with some 10,000 items - will honor the icon at the Geisel Library.