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Today, early science education is a well-accepted view. Enhancing children’s curiosity about the natural world and fostering positive attitudes toward science are primary goals of science education. However, questions remain regarding the appropriate ways to identify, nurture, and study these emotional states in pre-schoolers. This study examines the potential of using pre-schooler’s verbal (e.g. self-generated figurative expressions) and behavioral (sensorimotor interactions) responses while participating in a scientific activity, as indicators of curiosity and attitudes toward science. The responses of 41 pre-schoolers were documented via a response questionnaire developed for this study. An integrated quantitative–qualitative approach was utilized for data analyses. Results show that pre-schoolers utilize figurative expressions to express various emotional valences. Generation of verbal expressions that entail positive emotional valences and the desire to engage in sensorimotor interactions during a scientific activity were identified as positively correlated. Additionally, girls were more likely to express curiosity and positive attitudes toward science than boys in the context of this study. The findings suggest that these verbal and behavioral measures may serve as indicators of attitudes and curiosity toward science among pre-school children.

Nowadays, early science education is well-accepted by researchers, education professionals and policy makers. Overall, teachers’ attitudes and conceptions toward the science subject domain and science education influence their ways of teaching and engagement. However, there is a lack of research regarding factors that affect this engagement in pre-school years. The main assumption of this study is that teachers’ attitudes regarding science in pre-school can shape children's engagement in science and develop their scientific curiosity. Therefore, the main objectives of this study are to investigate the attitudes of pre-school teachers toward engaging in science and to explore their views about the nature of curiosity: who is a curious child and how can a child's natural curiosity be fostered? An extensive survey was conducted among 146 pre-school teachers by employing both qualitative and quantitative approaches. Results indicate that most of the participants believe that scientific education should begin ...

Increased paternal age has been associated with an increased risk for autism spectrum disorders. The present study compared the paternal age distribution in autism spectrum disorders children with that of the general population and among children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Study participants were drawn from the records of children diagnosed with one of these conditions in the years 1998-2006 at the Weinberg Child Development Center, Israel. Data regarding paternal age distribution in the general Israeli population were drawn from the yearly official publications of the Central Bureau of Statistics, Israel. Paternal age at the child's birth was found for autism spectrum disorders children (n = 268) and attention deficit hyperactivity disorders children (n = 320). Paternal age distribution of the attention deficit hyperactivity disorder children was similar to that of the general population in Israel, whereas autism spectrum disorders children were born to older fathers, compared with either the general population (P < 0.001) or children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (P = 0.04). These results support the claim that increased paternal age is associated with a birth of a child with autism spectrum disorders, but indicate that this finding cannot be generalized to attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

Fragile X syndrome is caused by CGG trinucleotide repeat expansion within the fragile X mental retardation 1 gene, when repeat number exceeds 200. The typical psychiatric profile of fragile X syndrome patients includes cognitive and behavioral deficits, psychiatric comorbidity, and autistic characteristics. Specific psychiatric features have not yet been clarified, specifically in relationship to age and genetic characteristics. The objective of this study was to characterize psychiatric comorbidities in subjects with fragile X syndrome at different ages. Subjects with fragile X syndrome and their unaffected siblings were recruited and their parents filled out functional-behavioral and psychiatric comorbidities questionnaires. Adolescents with fragile X syndrome showed decreased prevalence of functional-behavioral deficits. Incidence and severity of most psychiatric comorbidities were lower in older subjects. Incidence of generalized anxiety disorder increased with age in the fragile X syndrome group. The typical profile of patients with fragile X syndrome changes with age. Unaffected siblings exhibit anxiety and motor tics.

Objective: To examine the efficacy of transcranial electrical stimulation as a non-invasive method of reducing pain. Design: A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. Subjects: A total of 119 patients with chronic pain. Methods: Patients were treated with either transcranial electrical stimulation or an active placebo device. Short- and long-term follow-ups were evaluated for treatment efficacy with 4 ordinal scale variables: visual analogue scale (pain level), SLEEP (how often does pain disturb sleep), FREQ (frequency of pain) and MED (frequency of use of medications to relieve pain). Results: Pain level decreased significantly in the transcranial electrical stimulation-treated group compared with the active-placebo group 3 weeks after the end of treatment (p = 0.0017 between groups). Other parameters did not demonstrate significant differences. Three months after the end of treatment this effect was maintained and other treatment parameters showed similar improvements. Conclusion: Transcranial electrical stimulation is an effective non-invasive method for pain relief. The active placebo device has a powerful effect on reported pain, which diminishes in the long-term. The involvement of possible neural mechanisms is discussed.

This study assessed metabolic functioning of regional brain areas to address whether there is a neurometabolic profile reflecting the underlying neuropathology in individuals with autism spectrum disorders, and if varied profiles correlate with the clinical subtypes. Thirteen children (7-16 years) with autism spectrum disorders and 8 typically developing children were compared on 1H-magnetic resonance spectroscopy data collected from hippocampus-amygdala and cerebellar regions. The autism spectrum disorder group had significantly lower N-acetyl-aspartate/creatine ratios bilaterally in the hippocampus-amygdala but not cerebellum, whereas myo-inositol/creatine was significantly increased in all measured regions. Choline/creatine was also significantly elevated in the left hippocampus-amygdala and cerebellar regions of children with autism spectrum disorder. Comparisons within the autism spectrum disorder group when clinically subdivided by history of speech delay revealed significant metabolic ratio differences. Magnetic resonance spectroscopy can provide important information regarding abnormal brain metabolism and clinical classification in autism spectrum disorders.