downtoearth-subscribe

BYTES

  • 14/01/2007

numbers phobia: Children with Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) have particular difficulty understanding numbers and sequences, a University of Alberta study shows. An assessment of 50 Canadian children diagnosed with FASD, a condition caused by the mother's alcohol consumption while a foetus is still in the womb, revealed that the youngsters had specific deficits in memory for numbers and sequences, which may contribute to common maths difficulties faced by these children. The study also revealed differences among ethnicities. Aboriginal children (35 in the study) and non-aboriginal children (15) showed different patterns of strengths and weaknesses in neurobehavioural functioning. Aboriginal children had stronger visual memories than verbal memories, while non-aboriginal children showed just the opposite.

fossil find: Small but remarkable fossils found in New Zealand will prompt a major rewrite of prehistory textbooks, showing for the first time that the so-called "land of birds' was once home to mammals as well. The tiny fossilised bones

Related Content