LearningRx News Blog

Rep. Gabrielle Giffords was shot point-blank in the head three months ago. This week, the Arizona congresswoman traveled to Cape Canaveral to watch her astronaut husband, Commander Mark Kelly, begin a 16-day mission aboard the space shuttle Endeavour. Rep. Giffords, who has been called “America’s best-known traumatic brain injury patient,” watched the launch of final ...

In a recent study, people who learned to juggle grew bigger brains. And if you think we’re clowning around, we’re not. German researchers took 24 non-jugglers and divided them into two groups. One group was asked to do nothing; the other group was asked to practice juggling for three months. The researchers took brain scans ...

With spring and summer wardrobes just around the corner, many of us are thinking about shedding a few pounds. Again. The truth is that, compared to keeping it off, losing weight is a piece of cake (unfortunate metaphor, we admit). In fact, 95 percent of dieters gain their weight back. Sometimes they gain even more ...

Did you know that, this year, the average American kid will spend 1,500 hours watching TV…and just 900 hours in school? Or that, this week, the average American kid will spend 1,680 minutes watching TV…and less than 40 minutes in meaningful conversation with his or her parents? All in all, the average American watches 4 ...

"By Day Three, my four-year-old needed a cartoon and she needed it bad." So writes one mom who talked (cajoled? wheedled? pressured?) her family into turning off television (and other media, too) for an entire week. Mother of two Karen Linamen says her family’s TV-free week was filled with sobering discoveries. She describes a conversation ...

Lots of great games, puzzles, and brain teasers come in cubes. Rubik’s Cube. Scruble Cube. Qwirkle Cubes. So this month, we’re featuring12 different fun, challenging, sure-to-sharpen-your-brain games…all in the shape of cubes. Nationally renowned brain training experts Ken Gibson and Tanya Mitchell have created a free list to help parents shop for toys, games, and ...

Brain Awareness Week (BAW) this March 14 – 20 is the worldwide campaign to increase awareness about the progress and benefits of brain research. One of the many global events scheduled during this 16th annual BAW is the National Brain Bee at the University of Maryland, Baltimore on March 18 and 19. The Bee is ...

It’s Read Across America Day – a day set aside to encourage every person in America to read or be read to for fun. This annual nationwide observance coincides with the birthday of Dr. Seuss, the American writer best known for creating children’s books and inspiring the love of reading in four generations of kids. ...

And you thought patting your head and rubbing your stomach was hard! If you REALLY want to test your powers of concentration and memory, youshould try reciting the names of all 44 American presidents while executinga complicated cup-stacking pattern while surrounded by a distracting chorusof stomping, clapping classmates. Now do it in 17 seconds. A ...

Love can feel complicated, which is why few people describe successful relationships as “no brainers.” But turns out there’s another reason the phrase “no brainer” doesn’t apply to your love life. There’s actually a very big link between your heart and all that gray matter between your ears. In fact, the success of your relationships–romantic ...