The critical literature on early childhood has grown in recent years. So much so, that in the UK, Routledge (an academic publisher) has an entire series entitled “Contesting Early Childhood”. One of the latest titles in the series is Constructions of Neuroscience in Early Childhood Education, which follows other titles such as Alternative Narratives in Early Childhood,… Read more »
In 2016, the Neuroscience, Ethics and Society Group started a Young People’s Advisory Group (YPAG) in Oxford. You can read about why and how we did this here. After a year of meetings we’ve reflected on the good (and bad!), and have created a list of FIVE things to consider when developing an Advisory Group. But… Read more »
A year ago, on the 23rd of June 2017, the BeGOOD Team hosted an exciting event that brought together leaders of non-profit organisations, policy experts and researchers to discuss their approaches to early intervention (EI) and ethics in mental health. Panels revolved around four core themes, all of which are central to… Read more »
Would you spit in a tube and pay (about) one hundred pounds to find out your future health? A number of companies, including 23andme, Counsyl and DanteLabs, now allow customers to submit their saliva samples to find out if they carry genes associated with conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s and even breast cancer (for… Read more »
Autism, Parent-Blaming and False ‘Cures’ Once again the mainstream autism field risks blaming parents for the cause of autism. This time, through studies often funded by relative-led organisations. The “refrigerator mother” hypothesis blamed supposedly cold parenting for autism. Some of the families who were socially isolated and even split apart by this way of thinking… Read more »
By YPAG member Louie Glover The term “young person” usually refers to someone between the ages of 14 and 17, so legal rights of a person within this incorporating term varies, almost yearly. The law is complex but I feel it is necessary to present a quick outline of the major laws for young people… Read more »
Introduction Many years ago I heard a teenager screaming to her mother “You are a worm that enters the brain of your own child to drive her crazy!” In those days, blaming mothers for the mental health of their offspring was still a rather private business. Nowadays, the subject has entered the public debate, “in… Read more »
Research suggests, that in medical practice children have a minimal role in major treatment decisions regarding their health care. In particular, an investigation conducted by Coyne (2008) found that the ‘views of children are rarely sought nor acknowledged’. This conflicts with the well-established United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, that states children… Read more »
Raising Children on the Inside I’ve spent a lot of my time in prison this summer, playing with babies and chatting with their mums. There are six prison mother and baby units in the UK, and they are all different. The one I work in is contracted out to a charity, which is responsible for… Read more »
Attention to children’s brain development in the early years has been at the centre of English social policy since the late 1990s, and is linked to recent efforts to ‘improve people’s life chances’. Children’s food policy has been influenced by the language used in these debates. The belief that habits learnt in the early years… Read more »