Psychologist Ross Thompson’s new book, “The Brain Development Revolution: Science, the
Media, and Public Policy” tells the story of the 1997 “I Am Your Child” campaign with an
incisive analysis spanning how the campaign captured everyone’s attention, the backlash from
scientists and the continuing reverberations today.
Very young children learn words at a tremendous rate. Now researchers at the Center for Mind and Brain at UC Davis have for the first time seen how specific brain regions activate as 2-year-olds remember newly learned words — while the children were sleeping. The work is published Oct. 19 in Current Biology.
The sexual assault and child pornography conviction of former USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar. The child sex abuse scandal of Penn State football coach Jerry Sandusky. Hundreds of priests accused of sexual misconduct that took place over many years. These and other shocking cases — in addition to shattering public confidence in once-trusted officials and the institutions that employed them — raised the question in people’s minds: How well can anyone remember events that happened years, and even decades, earlier?
Identifying children with dyslexia as early as first grade could narrow or even close the achievement gap with typical readers, according to a new study by researchers at UC Davis and Yale University.
Ross Thompson, a distinguished professor of psychology, is the new president of the board of directors for Zero to Three, a national nonprofit that promotes the health and development of young children.
