Because of a lapse in government funding, the information on this website may not be up to date, transactions submitted via the website may not be processed, and the agency may not be able to respond to inquiries until appropriations are enacted.
The NIH Clinical Center (the research hospital of NIH) is open. For more details about its operating status, please visit cc.nih.gov.
Updates regarding government operating status and resumption of normal operations can be found at OPM.gov.
News & Updates
Alan Guttmacher, M.D., Director of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) announced a number of changes to streamline the institute’s organizational structure and accelerate the exchange of scientific ideas.
A document charting a research course for the many collaborators who share an interest in promoting the science concerning human development through the life span, child health, women's health, and rehabilitation research is now available online.
As the Institute marks its golden anniversary, we look back on the NICHD's early years, its scientific accomplishments, and its future.
“Health literacy” is the ability to obtain and understand health information to help make appropriate health decisions for oneself and one’s family.
The August 2012 NICHD Research Perspectives, the NICHD’s monthly podcast, is now online. The August podcast features research on how the stresses of poverty may affect learning in young children, the effects of fetal alcohol exposure, and how the ability to estimate quantities changes across the lifespan.
The National Institutes of Health has announced grant awards of $100 million over five years for the Autism Centers of Excellence (ACE) research program, which will feature projects investigating sex differences in autism spectrum disorders, or ASD, and investigating ASD and limited speech.
The stresses of poverty—such as crowded conditions, financial worry, and lack of adequate child care—lead to impaired learning ability in children from impoverished backgrounds, according to a theory by a researcher funded by the National Institutes of Health. The theory is based on several years of studies matching stress hormone levels to behavioral and school readiness test results in young children from impoverished backgrounds.
The June 2012 NICHD Research Perspectives—NICHD' monthly podcast series—features discussions of a treatment that reduces the body temperatures of infants who experience oxygen deficiency at birth, the effectiveness of progesterone as a treatment for the infertility associated with polycystic ovary syndrome, and the influence that engaging the attention of young children with autism has on their language development.
An intervention in which adults actively engaged the attention of preschool children with autism by pointing to toys and using other gestures to focus their attention results in a long term increase in language skills, according to researchers supported by the National Institutes of Health.
Asian women who consumed an average of 200 milligrams or more of caffeine a day--the equivalent of roughly two cups of coffee--had elevated estrogen levels when compared to women who consumed less, according to a study of reproductive age women by researchers at the National Institutes of Health and other institutions.
Funding for four centers to conduct research on the causes and treatment of learning disabilities in children and adolescents has been provided by the National Institutes of Health.
Vitamin D may help prevent hormonal changes that can lead to bone loss among those being treated for HIV with the drug tenofovir, according to the results of a National Institutes of Health network study of adolescents with HIV.
Children exposed to HIV before birth are at risk for language impairments, according to a study by researchers at the National Institutes of Health and other institutions.
Regardless of high or low overall scores on an IQ test, children with dyslexia show similar patterns of brain activity, according to researchers supported by the National Institutes of Health. The results call into question the discrepancy model--the practice of classifying a child as dyslexic on the basis of a lag between reading ability and overall IQ scores.
Researchers supported by the National Institutes of Health are undertaking a preliminary study to identify the early origins of heart disease among African-Americans. The new feasibility study will enroll children and grand children of participants taking part in the largest study of heart disease risk factors among African-American adults, the Jackson Heart Study (JHS), in Jackson, Miss.
Children who start elementary school with difficulty associating small exact quantities of items with the printed numerals that represent those quantities are more likely to develop a math-related learning disability than are their peers, according to a study supported by the National Institutes of Health.
Preschoolers with a strong ability to estimate quantities are more likely to score higher on tests of basic number skills than are their peers with less ability to estimate quantities, according to a study supported by the National Institutes of Health.
Children who attended an intensive preschool and family support program attained higher educational levels, were more likely to be employed, and less likely to have problems with the legal system than were peers who did not attend the program, according to a study funded by the NIH's Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD).
Researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health have discovered that the innate ability to estimate quantities is impaired in children who have a math learning disability.
Brain scans of dyslexic adolescents who were later able to compensate for their dyslexia showed a distinct pattern of brain activity when compared to scans of adolescents who were unable to compensate, reported researchers funded in part by the U.S. National Institutes of Health.