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The semifinals of the Scripps National Spelling Bee begin today. And who better to talk through it all than 1999 champion Nupur Lala? Nupur won the bee with the word “logorrhea,” which means “the excessive use of words.” Her journey to the top was documented in the Oscar-nominated film “Spellbound.” 

Does technology hurt a child's character development? Psychotherapist Sheri Noga believes there are potentially negative sides. As she sees it, today’s technology amplifies the mindset of immediate gratification; and that can be bad for children, parents and the world.

A new study suggests that children born via C-section are twice as likely to be obese by age three than those delivered vaginally way. On the surface, this might appear to be breakthrough work in our understanding of obesity, but how seriously should expectant mothers take it?

College is a time for academic inquiry, personal growth, and, of course, studying. But three studies published in the past three years suggest there might be less studying happening on college campuses than there used to be. According to one of them, by economists from the University of California, Santa Barbara, college students today spend about 40 percent less time studying outside of class than they did in 1961.

What is the color of honey, and "faces pale with fear"? If you're Homer--one of the most influential poets in human history--that color is green. And the sea is "wine-dark," just like oxen...though sheep are violet. Which all sounds...well, really off. Producer Tim Howard introduces us to linguist Guy Deutscher, ...

Two teenagers in Indiana listed on Facebook eight students and one teacher from their school that they’d like to kill. The school expelled the two girls involved in the exchange. Should students be punished for their cyber-activities off campus? Wendy Kaminer is a lawyer, social critic, and contributing editor at The Atlantic, and Regina Webb is the person who first got the Griffith Middle School involved in this case, when Webb's older daughter was one of the people whose name was listed as a potential mark in the Facebook exchange.

The next time your children get filthy playing in the riverbed or taking apart the remote control, stop before you scold. Scientists say that this kind of play is actually like hands-on science experimentation for your kids; they're learning to decipher the world around them through exploration. Alison Gopnik, professor of psychology at the University of California at Berkeley, explains how these findings should change how we educate our children.

Bullying is commonplace in schools, but in recent years cyber-bullying, suicides, and school shootings have shown bullying to be a very serious issue. On this week’s Please Explain we’ll find out what constitutes bullying and aggression among children (and adults), its repercussions, and how parents, children, and schools should address it. We’re joined by Elizabeth Englander, Professor of Psychology and Director of the Massachusetts Aggression Reduction Center at Bridgewater State University, and Jessie Klein, Assistant Professor of Sociology and Criminal Justice at Adelphi University, and author of The Bully Society: School Shootings and the Crisis of Bullying in America’s Schools.

The Center for New York City Affairs recently hosted a forum to review the connection between child welfare and juvenile justice in New York City and the state. Listen to the forum here.

Approximately one-third of adults and 17 percent of children in the U.S. are obese. While this public health crisis has spawned a billion dollar diet industry, reality shows dedicated to weight loss, and the First Lady's "Let's Move" program, Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta didn’t think these were enough to discourage children from making unhealthy choices. The hospital launched a billboard and digital campaign featuring obese children with derogatory narration and captions. The ads are powerful, but they’ve also been criticized for stigmatizing overweight children.

In 1961, Ezra Jack Keats wrote and illustrated his first children’s book. It was called "The Snowy Day" and it told the story of Peter, a young, African-American boy in Brooklyn, enjoying the season's first snowfall. The book was immediately popular. Prior to its publication, no other mainstream children’s book had featured a black hero in a non-caricatured way.

Sam Childers was once a drug dealer whose work often turned violent, but in the summer of 1992, he attended a church revival and decided to abandon his life of crime. After traveling to war-torn Sudan to find a way to aid children there, he founded an orphanage with his wife in what is now South Sudan. Childers came on The Takeaway in September to discuss his life, his orphanage, and making amends.

Afghani children can now watch their own version of "Sesame Street."  The new children’s series hit the screens across that country this month. The producers of the original American version of "Sesame Street" have partnered with two popular Afghan television stations to produce "Sesame Garden," or "Baghch-e-Simsim" in the local languages of Dari and Pashto. Like its American counterpart, "Sesame Garden," has a progressive message along the way. The show aims to challenge gender barriers and expand roles for women and girls. Show segments feature young girls going to school, and emphasize female role models in a variety of careers, including as doctors and engineers.

In October, neuroscientists Sandra Aamodt and Sam Wang were on Please Explain to discuss how a young children’s brains develop. And this week they return to discuss the brains of adolescents and teenagers—from sleep problems, gender differences, behavior issues, learning disabilities, and hormones. They investigate myths about brain development and sort through the factors that matter—and those that don’t—in brain development from childhood to college. They’re the co-authors of Welcome to Your Child's Brain: How the Mind Grows from Conception to College.

How well do you know your child's brain? Take this quiz!

Academy Award-winner Goldie Hawn talks about her days as a dancer, her acting career, taking on the roles of producer and director, and her interest in meditation and the mind. Her latest book, 10 Mindful Minutes  is about the Hawn Foundation’s MindUP program, which teaches children social and emotional skills. She explains the positive effects of mindfulness, compassion, and kindness.

The Terms of Service on sites like Facebook and Gmail prohibit anyone under the age of 13 from signing up to be in compliance with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, which regulates how companies can collect data about users under 13. But a new study finds that a lot of parents are actually helping their kids cheat the system so they can access those sites.  Bob speaks with danah boyd, one of the authors of the study "Why Parents help their children lie to Facebook about age."

Today the world's population reached seven billion. Duncan Kennedy, reporting for the BBC, spent the first few hours with that seven billionth baby — or one of the newborns that could lay claim to the title — Alice, in Australia. He spoke with her new parents about the advent of a new life in their world, and about what it's like to be the parents of a child on a 7 billion person planet. 

Neuroscientists Sandra Aamodt and Sam Wang discuss how a child’s brain develops, from conception to college, looking at language learning, sleep problems, gender differences, and behavior issues. They debunk myths and look at the factors that matter—and those that don’t—in children’s brain development. They’re the co-authors of Welcome to Your Child's Brain: How the Mind Grows from Conception to College.

How well do you know your child's brain? Take this quiz to find out!

Academy Award-winner Goldie Hawn talks about her days as a dancer, her acting career, taking on the roles of producer and director, and her interest in meditation and the mind. Her latest book, 10 Mindful Minutes  is about the Hawn Foundation’s MindUP program, which teaches children social and emotional skills. She explains the positive effects of mindfulness, compassion, and kindness.

Dr. Seuss fans, rejoice. This fall, seven rare Seuss stories, which were previously printed in Redbook, will be published in book form. The stories — which he wrote between 1950 and 1951 — have fantastically Seussian titles: "The Bippolo Seed," "Zinniga-Zanniga," "Tadd and Todd," and "Gustav the Goldfish." The compilation is called "The Bippolo Seed and Other Lost Stories by Dr. Seuss," and Random House is publishing it in late September.