Children and Family

A young girl who lost her voice after brain tumour surgery can now only communicate using her iPad - and SIRI. Millie Garbutt was left unable to speak after having a life-saving tracheotomy after doctors operated on a brain tumour. Now the 12-year-old has to communicate using the text-to-speech function on her tablet computer - that uses the same voice as Apple's 'virtual assistant' Siri. Mum Emma Garbutt said: "She has an iPad and another electronic device which attaches to...

Women are judged negatively if they choose to take maternity leave – and if they don’t – new research suggests. In a study of workers’ attitudes, mothers who took time off to care for babies were seen as less committed and competent at work. Meanwhile, those who continued working were viewed as less caring parents. The results suggest women are “damned” either way, according to lead author Dr Thekla Morgenroth, of the University of Exeter. “This is a no-win situation...

Millions of British children are copying the drinking habits of their parents, new research has revealed. Over six in ten UK adults admit their children copy their drinking habits for both healthy and unhealthy drinks. The results show that if they have a soft drink, the child asks for that too, with eight per cent of youngsters having a fizzy drink every day. If parents drink more healthily, children are also likely to follow, increasing their consumption of water, low/no...

Newborn Bobby Davies had the first of two open heart surgeries when he was just three months old after he was born with deadly heart defect, tricuspid atresia. The tot, now seven months, successfully went under the knife in a Glenn Shunt operation just 12 weeks after he was born to increase the amount of oxygenated blood going round his tiny body. Dad Richard, 28, got a tattoo of his son's scar on his chest so his brave little soldier...

What is a 'normal family', Lisa Belkin probed in a new study published in the New York Times. Statistically, it is no longer a mother, a father and their biological children living together under one roof, and certainly not with Dad going off to work and Mom staying home. "Although perception and acceptance often lag behind reality, there is evidence that a new definition of family — while far from universally accepted — is emerging". The nuclear family has certainly expired, but it...

One of the main characteristics of the today’s society is its constantly changing shape and features. The modern world is developing at such rate that it can easily be called inconsistent. Such an inconsistency can be quite challenging and one of the last resorts we can find is a family. There is a ton of investigations on the subject. Some of them argue that the conception of the family is obsolete and there is no place for it in the...

Kids and technology have been a long debated subject, there are numerous arguments for and against the use of technology in the classroom and at home. It’s an understandable argument, unsupervised, the use of the internet or too much time on a games console can be detrimental to a child’s development. It’s important that parents and teachers make sure that children and technology are supervised, along with constantly evaluating the outcome to make sure it’s providing a developmental benefit. But...

An academy in east London is waging war against the damaging impact body image anxiety can have on young people by taking on a new body confidence toolkit from the Be Real Campaign. Teachers at the Chobham Academy, which opened in September 2013 on the site of the London Olympic Village, will be teaching pupils how to feel comfortable with their bodies using the Body Confidence Campaign Toolkit for Schools. The toolkit was officially launched today by the Be Real...

A teenager has a landed a deal making him more money than most people can ever dream of making, and he still hasn’t taken his GCSEs. The wheeler-dealer, who attends Taunton Academy School, had already made £100k, by the age of thirteen, selling tax disc reminders as the head of one of the UK’s fastest growing businesses. Harvey Millington, now 14, has moved into the world of property developing landing himself a HUGE deal already, landing a seven-figure deal. Harvey...