Children learn to read faster – given appropriate challenges
Many children struggle with reading. A new method offers hope. The focus is on giving children the right challenges.
Children and families
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Children need rough and tumble play
Children engage in rough play today, just like they did in the past. What’s the same and what has changed? Researchers have taken a closer look and have a clear recommendation for today’s parents and kindergarten and school staff.
School, war and crisis management
The Norwegian school year start up again after another pandemic crisis year and with the ongoing war in Ukraine. Pupils’ experiences may be different, but all children are affected by these crises, some many years later.
How useful or necessary is homework?
This topic is one of several addressed in an updated Norwegian Education Act that is currently out for comments. Several researchers are sceptical about the benefits of homework.
Algorithms can prevent online abuse
The number of abuse cases against children via the internet has increased by almost 50 per cent in five years, according to the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation. Researchers at NTNU in Gjøvik have developed algorithms that can help detect planned online grooming by analysing conversations.
Mental stress plagues 44 per cent of teenage girls in Norway
In the age of smartphones and social media, the number of adolescents and young adults in Norway with depression and anxiety has doubled. Researchers believe politicians and technology giants need to take more responsibility.
The computing industry can assist Polish refugee centres
Speedy work carried out for free in Norway resulted in an IT system that protects refugees against human traffickers at the Polish-Ukrainian border. This type of aid work may become financially self-supporting.
How can child welfare services work better with young children?
Young children are not sufficiently listened to and included in their own case decisions in Child Welfare Services. A European development project has been tasked with tackling the issue.
Hope for children at risk of relapse in depression
Depression is one of the most common mental disorders in adolescence and is found in children as young as kindergarten age. Unfortunately, the disorder often lasts into adulthood, but an NTNU study gives cause for optimism.
Transition to lower secondary school is positive for most pupils
Lower secondary school means grades, more tests and more freedom. On top of all that you have the major physical developments that the body is undergoing. Yet the vast majority of pupils find the transition to lower secondary school positive, according to research from NTNU.
Kids still play like their grandparents did
For generations, children have played blind man’s bluff, hide-and-seek, hopscotch and climbed trees. But in the “olden days,” free play could more often end in injury and death.
Authorities concealed fallout from atomic bombs
France covered up the consequences of their nuclear tests in the Pacific. As many as 110 000 people may have been exposed to radioactive fallout above the assumed safe levels.
Feel-good hormone dopamine affects passion and autism
Dopamine is often called the “happy” or “feel-good” hormone. It can help explain both autistic behaviours and men’s need for passion in order to succeed.
Children of well-educated people have higher survival rates
The higher parents’ education level, the more likely it is that their children will survive the first five years of life. Over three million births have been examined.
Mom is right — get up off the sofa
A lot of young people struggle with depression, a fact that is especially true for girls. But youth who are physically active are less vulnerable.
New technology could increase health inequities
Rich countries get vaccines first. People with high status or a lot of money are healthier and live longer. New technology could increase the disparities.
Why writing by hand makes kids smarter
New brain research shows that writing by hand helps children learn more and remember better. At the same time, schools are becoming more and more digital, and a European survey shows that Norwegian children spend the most time online of 19 countries in the EU.
Young gamers not more prone to psychiatric disorders
Children who show signs of addiction-like gaming are not more susceptible to mental health problems than their non-gaming peers. Some even experience less anxiety than others.
Social media “likes” and comments lead to poorer self-esteem
Girls who “like” and comment on what others post on social media develop a worse self-image over time. Posting on your own profile doesn’t have the same effect.
Best players are passionate about football
Sogndal football teams from Vestland county in Norway have now been studied by specialists. Football coaches often consider the players with the greatest passion and grit to be the best.
Mindfulness training helps men manage anger
Before treatment, 85 per cent of the men in the study beat, kicked or shook their girlfriend. After treatment, most of them had stopped being violent.
Finding ways to close the gender gap in science, technology, engineering and maths subjects
How do we help the young, especially women, so they are better prepared for learning science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) subjects? A multi-university consortium including NTNU has been awarded a four year, €4.12 million Horizon 2020 grant to help answer this question.
How we figure out that red herrings are neither red nor herrings
Our language can be fun and colourful, but unusual phrases that aren’t literal can be difficult for some to interpret. Learning more about how we decipher these phrases can help us teach people in certain groups how to better understand them.
Winter War in Finland was a struggle against invading power
Eighty years have passed since the end of the Finnish Winter War. “The war is my family’s history too,” Soilikki Vettenranta writes in this Viewpoint article.