An educational study unprecedented in scope finds that children who enter kindergarten with elementary mathematics and reading skills are the most likely to experience later academic success -- whether or not they have social or emotional problems.

Children entering kindergarten with elementary math and reading skills are the most likely to do well in school later, even if they have various social and emotional problems, say researchers who examined data from six studies of close to 36,000 preschoolers. Children’s attention-related skills also mattered, the researchers found.

Just in time for the start of the holiday eating season - a new study finds that dieters who have the tendency to eat in response to external factors, such as at festive celebrations, have fewer problems with their weight loss than those who eat in response to emotions (internal factors).

Children who were taught a curriculum that focused on self-control and awareness of their own and others’ emotions were found to exhibit greater social competence and fewer behavioral and emotional problems.

A conference in Darwin has heard that play therapy should be used more widely to help children deal with emotional problems such as bullying. The type of therapy enables young children to act out problems they cannot put into words.

A new joint study by UCLA and the Rand Corp. shows that more than half of children with an HIV-infected parent are not consistently in that parent's custody.