Lessons from the longest study on human development | Helen Pearson
TED Talks Daily
TED
4.1 • 12.1K Ratings
🗓️ 2 October 2017
⏱️ 12 minutes
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Summary
For the past 70 years, scientists in Britain have been studying thousands of children through their lives to find out why some end up happy and healthy while others struggle. It's the longest-running study of human development in the world, and it's produced some of the best-studied people on the planet while changing the way we live, learn and parent. Reviewing this remarkable research, science journalist Helen Pearson shares some important findings and simple truths about life and good parenting.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This TED Talk features science journalist, editor and author, |
| 0:04.3 | Helen Pearson, recorded live at TED 2017. |
| 0:10.0 | Today, I want to confess something to you. |
| 0:13.0 | But first of all, I'm going to ask you a couple of questions. |
| 0:16.0 | How many people here have children? |
| 0:19.0 | And how many of you are confident |
| 0:21.6 | that you know how to bring up your children in exactly the right way? |
| 0:28.6 | Okay, I don't see too many hands going up on that second one. |
| 0:31.6 | And that's my confession too. |
| 0:33.6 | I've got three boys, they're three, nine and twelve. |
| 0:36.6 | And like you, and like most parents, |
| 0:38.0 | the honest truth is, I have pretty much no idea what I'm doing. |
| 0:42.0 | I know I want them to be happy and healthy in their lives, |
| 0:44.2 | but I don't really know what I'm supposed to do to make sure that they are happy and healthy. |
| 0:48.0 | I mean, there's so many books out there offering all kinds of conflicting advice. |
| 0:51.0 | It can be really overwhelming. So I've spent most of their lives just making |
| 0:55.0 | it up as I go along. However, something changed to me a few years ago when I came across a little |
| 1:01.5 | secret that we have in Britain. It's helped me become more confident about how I bring up my own |
| 1:06.1 | children, and it's revealed a lot about how we as a society can help all children. |
| 1:12.8 | I want to share that secret with you today. |
| 1:17.4 | For the last 70 years, scientists in Britain have been following thousands and thousands of children through their lives |
| 1:20.8 | as part of an incredible scientific study. |
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