Kids | featured news

The grandmother of a 4-year-old girl who became hysterical during a security screening at a Kansas airport said Wednesday that the child was forced to undergo a pat-down after hugging her, with security agents yelling and calling the crying girl an uncooperative suspect.

Teachers hurled insults like "bastard," "tard," "damn dumb" and "a hippo in a ballerina suit." A bus driver threatened to slap one child, while a bus monitor told another, "Shut up, you little dog."...

Publication bias: It has long been a problem in medical research. Studies that show a drug or treatment is effective are more likely to be published than studies with negative findings.

A massive search for a 6-year-old Tucson, Ariz., girl who vanished Friday night resumed Sunday morning. Scores of police, FBI agents and deputy U.S. marshals combed the city’s east side for first-grader Isabel Mercedes Celis. Officials tried to determine if the girl was kidnapped or just wandered off. Isabel’s parents last saw her in bed at 11 p.m. Friday, and they discovered her missing when they woke up around 8 a.m. Saturday, Tucson police spokeswoman Sgt. Maria Hawke said.

It was a clue — the kind of clue medical researchers notice. Intent on finding answers about autism, now estimated to affect 1 of every 88 children, they followed it, poking and prodding and scanning, prying open its secrets.

Police in Georgia handcuffed a kindergartner after the girl threw a tantrum, and the police chief is making no apologies. WMAZ-TV (http://on.wmaz.com/I0ZrNE ) reports the 6-year-old is accused of tearing items off the walls and throwing furniture at school in the central Georgia city of Milledgeville. The police report says the girl knocked over a shelf that injured the principal.

Malaysia Airlines will start flying its first Airbus A380-800 on July 1, but kids won't be welcome on the massive airliner's upper deck.

Scientists have discovered two gene variants that appear to play a critical role in the development of common childhood obesity, according to a large genetic study released Sunday. The discovery could eventually lead to treatments and specific lifestyle advice for heavy children.

For the first time in nearly two decades, experts are trying to rewrite the definition of autism.

... some machine-based tutoring is approaching the effect size of real human tutoring—and there is less variation than one might expect as the grain size of tutoring becomes finer. This finding is a startling observation.