child psychology

More than a quarter of parents in a recent poll say they hope their teens who play high school sports will become professional athletes. But sky-high parental expectations can have a dark side.

Most young children who are extra choosy about what they'll eat eventually outgrow the habit. But research finds that in extreme cases, the pickiness may be linked to depression or social anxiety.

Even infants too young to discern the meaning of words seem better able to learn while listening to the sound of human speech than while listening to nonsense — speech run backward. Little surprise there, perhaps, but a study shows that recordings of lemur calls spark learning, too.