Representation shapes how we understand ourselves long before we have the language to explain who we are, report Jess Rowlings and Matthew Harrison When autistic children don’t see themselves reflected in toys, stories or media, the absence can feel like a message about who belongs –...

Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a condition that develops during childhood and affects 6–10% of kids and 2–6% of adults, reports researcher Clare O'Toole. FatCamera/Getty Images People with ADHD have either mainly inattentive symptoms (such as lacking concentration), mainly hyperactive and impulsive symptoms (such as speaking or...

Brendon Hyndman and Vaughan Cruickshank look at why some schools have stopped running camps as costs rise. What can we do instead? School camps have long been a rite of passage for many Australian students in both primary and high school. Typically, camps begin in primary school...

Australia’s recycling system has been lurching from one crisis to another for decades, writes Jonathan Baker  Soft-plastic schemes are collapsing, kerbside contamination is on the rise, and states are still struggling to coordinate a coherent national approach. But the deeper problem isn’t technical. It’s historical — and...

Traumatic experiences can have ripple effects that permeate across many aspects of people’s lives, reports Tom Brunzell For students, adverse childhood experiences have been shown to impact attention, memory, language development and relational functioning – the exact skills learning relies on. Students who have experienced childhood aversity can often act...

A Sydney school’s move to a later start time is reigniting a big question for families: are early mornings setting teens up to fail? New research suggests school schedules may be out of step with how adolescent brains actually work, writes Ken Purnell This year, students...