Kids, Brain | featured news

A quick-thinking mother saved her son’s life when she Googled his ailments, the Shropshire Star reported. Kian Jones, 12, of Shrewsbury, U.K., had persistent headaches, poor vision and vomiting, which his mother, Sabina, typed into Google after the child was initially misdiagnosed.

Researchers say the small but significant increases in the risk of leukemia and brain cancer do not mean that CT scans should be avoided entirely, but that the test should be performed only when necessary.

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.

Brain games can help with abstract reasoning months after the training, but they work only for those who really need and enjoy the exercises, a study says. Training a child to hold a whole cluster of items in his or her memory for even a short time may feel like trying to hold a wave on the sand.

Li Jingchao learned the hard way -- be careful what you stick up your nose.