Michelle Trudeau
Michelle Trudeau began her radio career in 1981, filing stories for NPR from Beijing and Shanghai, China, where she and her husband lived for two years. She began working as a science reporter and producer for NPR's Science Desk since 1982. Trudeau's news reports and feature stories, which cover the areas of human behavior, child development, the brain sciences, and mental health, air on NPR's Morning Edition and All Things Considered.
Trudeau has been the recipient of more than twenty media broadcasting awards for her radio reporting, from such professional organizations as the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Casey Journalism Center, the American Psychiatric Association, World Hunger, the Los Angeles Press Club, the American Psychological Association, and the National Mental Health Association.
Trudeau is a graduate of Stanford University. While at Stanford, she studied primate behavior and conducted field research with Dr. Jane Goodall at the Gombe Stream Research Centre in Tanzania. Prior to coming to NPR, Trudeau worked as a Research Associate at the Institute of Medicine, National Academy of Sciences, in Washington, D.C.
Trudeau now lives in Southern California, the mother of twins.
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A new study finds that the tendency for some children in their early adolescence to sleep less presents a danger to their mental health. The study, in the recent issue of the journal Child Development, says children who get less sleep may develop symptoms of depression and low self-esteem. NPR's Michelle Trudeau reports.
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Bipolar disorder can occur in children as young as five or six years old. The disorder is also known as manic depression, for the mood swings that shift -- sometimes quickly and often -- from manic highs to deep depressions. In the third story this week on children and mental illness, NPR's Michelle Trudeau reports that bipolar disorder in children may have particularly severe symptoms.
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A growing number of psychiatric researchers agrees that bipolar disorder occurs in children and not just in adults. Bipolar disorder is also known as manic-depression. Children as young as five or six years old suffer from the manic highs and deep depressions that characterize the disorder. In a second report on mental illness in children, NPR's Michelle Trudeau introduces one family whose young son has bipolar disorder.
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Babies' babbling is the stuff of scientific study. Writing in the current issue of The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers have discovered that babies change and improve their babbling sounds in rapid response to affectionate behaviors from their mothers. NPR's Michelle Trudeau reports.
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A study on the sex lives of adolescents ages 12 to 14 finds that one in five have had sexual intercourse. A survey of more than 30,000 young teens also raises fears about lack of contraception and increased risk for sexually transmitted diseases and unwanted pregnancy. In the first installment of a three-part series, hear NPR's Michelle Trudeau.
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Every day, juvenile dependency courts across the country are filled with parents who have neglected, abused, abandoned or mistreated their children. To protect these children, judges will often separate the child from the parent -- sometimes temporarily in foster care and sometimes permanently. In Florida, Judge Cindy Lederman has turned to science to help make these difficult custody decisions. NPR's Michelle Trudeau reports.
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NPR's Michelle Trudeau reports on two new research studies that give clues about clinical depression, an illness that afflicts 18 million people in this country. Writing in two scientific journals, this month's issues of The American Journal of Medical Genetics and The American Journal of Psychiatry, these researchers report finding a genetic clue that may explain why many more women suffer from depression than men, and a specific brain abnormality that may help lead to an explanation of why depression tends to strike repeatedly in many people.