In a new fMRI study conducted in the Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Clinical Research Laboratory (Montpellier I University, France) and published by Elsevier in the February 2009 issue of Cortex, researchers found differences among male and female groups on activation strength linked to verbal fluency (words generation).

Faint magnetic signals from brain activity in children with autism show that those children process sound and language differently from non-autistic children.

Playing with toy blocks may lead to improved language development in middle- and low-income children, according to a report in the October issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

Despite marketing claims, parents who want to give their infants a boost in learning language probably should limit the amount of time they expose their children to DVDs and videos such as “Baby Einstein” and “Brainy Baby.”