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Flashback In Spite Of Computers, Handwriting Instruction Is Important Because Of Carry-Over To Composition

When the mechanical process of handwriting is taught in tandem with the more creative process of composition, the result is improvement in both skills, a study of Seattle first-graders shows. Ironically, the discovery comes at a time when the teaching of handwriting is less emphasized in the schools because of the presence of the computer. However, children who have poor handwriting in first grade are likely to have trouble with written expression when they are older, say Virginia Berninger and Robert Abbott, co-directors of the study and professors of education at the University of Washington. Their research since 1989 shows a direct carry-over from handwriting to compositional length and quality throughout the elementary grades.

For the study, first grade classes in eight public schools in the greater Seattle area were screened for problems with handwriting, using test measures and teacher recommendations. From this group of more than 700 children, 144 with writing problems were selected and randomly assigned to one of six types of remedial work. The children met in groups of three with a trained graduate student tutor who worked with them for 20 minutes about twice a week until 24 sessions had been conducted.

Question

New Ebola Strain Blamed for Killing 16 in Uganda

Health officials in Uganda say they have identified a strain of the deadly Ebola virus as the likely killer of at least 16 people in the west of the country since late August. But as VOA Correspondent Alisha Ryu reports from our East Africa Bureau in Nairobi, officials are baffled and worried by what they believe is a new strain of the hemorrhagic fever.

©CDC
Electron micrograph of Ebola virus

People

Flashback Nodding or shaking your head may even influence your own thoughts, study finds

When you nod your head to signal approval or shake your head to show disapproval, it's not just sending a message to others - you may also be influencing yourself.

A new study showed that these simple movements influenced people's agreement with an editorial they heard while nodding or shaking their head. Researchers found that other body movements - such as writing with a non-dominant hand - can also influence attitudes, even about important issues such as self-esteem.

And these body movements exert their influence without people being aware of what is happening.

"We think of nodding or shaking our head as something that communicates to other people, but it turns out that it is also communicating to ourselves," said Richard Petty, co-author of the study and professor of psychology at Ohio State University.

In a sense, Petty said, nodding or shaking your head, as well as other body movements, serve as a kind of "self-validation" that confirms to us how we feel about our own thoughts.

"If we are nodding our heads up and down, we gain confidence in what we are thinking. But when we shake our heads from side to side, we lose confidence in our own thoughts."

People

Science: Can we stop anti-social behaviour?

What goes through the mind of a gun-toting teenager when he pulls the trigger? Does he make a conscious decision to kill? Or is he acting on instinct? The debate over why teens turn violent usually focuses on family breakdown, drug and alcohol abuse, poverty, unemployment, even diet.

Key

Flashback The Origins of Antisocial Behaviour, Twin Study

New research on the origins of antisocial behaviour, published in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, suggests that early-onset antisocial behaviour in children with psychopathic tendencies is largely inherited.

The findings are the result of extensive research funded by the Medical Research Council, the Department of Health and the Home Office, and carried out by Dr. Essi Viding of the MRC Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre, within the Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London.

Clock

Skin ageing 'reversed' in mice

Scientists have reversed the effects of ageing on the skin of mice by blocking the action of a specific protein.

Bizarro Earth

Fever Outbreak Linked to Climate Change

London - An outbreak in Europe of an obscure disease from Africa is raising concerns that globalization and climate change are combining to pose a health threat to the West.

Nearly 300 cases of chikungunya fever, a virus that previously has been common only in Africa and Asia, were reported in Italy - where only isolated cases of the disease had been seen in the past.

Attention

Shock Doctrine: Disturbing News for Patients and Shock Doctors Alike

Something most remarkable and unexpected has occurred in the field of psychiatry. Lead by a lifelong defender and promoter of shock treatment, Harold Sackeim, a team of investigators has recently published a follow up study of 347 patients given the currently available methods of electroshock, including the supposedly most benign forms--and confirmed that electroshock causes permanent brain damage and dysfunction.

Life Preserver

'Supermouse' bred to beat cancer

Mice carrying a gene which appears to make them invulnerable to cancer may hold the key to safer and more effective treatments for humans.

Wine

Flashback 'Alcohol makes your brain grow'

Drinking alcohol boosts the growth of new nerve cells in the brain, research suggests.