Child labour numbers rise in homes where adults are jobless – South African study: Child labour is a big concern across the world. It is particularly acute in countries in the global south, where it is estimated that about 160 million children are engaged in child labour, about 87 million of them in sub-Saharan Africa. …
Taung child: the controversial story of the fossil discovery that proved humanity’s common origins in Africa – podcast: The cast of the Taung child skull found in South Africa in 1924. Didier Descouens/Wikipedia Commons, CC BY-SA One hundred years ago, a paper was published in the journal Nature that would radically shift our understandings of …
Child support in South Africa: mothers speak about the struggle to get fathers to pay in a system rigged against women: Child maintenance – the duty to support a child – is more than a right. It ensures children have their basic needs met. It also means single mothers don’t have to shoulder the responsibility …
If your child is watching TV and playing online games, you should do it with them – here’s why: PeopleImages.com – Yuri A/Shutterstock Young children spend a lot of time using screens: watching television, playing on touchscreen apps, or facetiming with grandparents. In fact, research on global screen time guidelines has found that around 75% …
How to help your child as they start at primary school: Evgeny Atamanenko/Shutterstock Starting primary school is a momentous and exciting time for children. A positive start to school has been linked to children’s social and academic success in their first year at school. Children generally adjust well to new environments, routines and structure. However, …
Raising a child to 18 in the UK costs more than £200,000 – here’s why: Pixel-Shot/Shutterstock Before having our first baby last year, we wondered whether we had the money, time and necessary skills to raise a child. Perhaps you find yourself contemplating the same? Many people certainly have, as birth rates have been declining …
When to give your child their first mobile phone – and how to keep them safe: Pressmaster/Shutterstock I spend my career researching young people and the internet: what they do online, what they think about it and how their views differ to those of their parents. I often get questions from parents about their children’s …
Britney Spears’ memoir is a reminder of the stigma and potential damage of child stardom: Britney Spears’ new memoir, The Woman in Me, illustrates once again the potential lifelong damage that can be caused by being a child star. Like many before her, including Judy Garland and Michael Jackson, Spears was ushered into the dangerous …
Should you send your child to an academy or a council-run school? Why Ofsted results don’t mean much: Monkey Business Images/Shutterstock Helping your child choose a new school is a daunting process. You have to take into account catchment areas, how your child will travel to school, and where their friends are going. You may …
Being an only child doesn’t affect your development – family background matters more: Motortion Films/Shutterstock Being an only child is a “disease in itself”, according to 19th century psychologist Stanley G. Hall. Even though Hall’s views and scholarly research methods have been questioned and criticised, only children’s reputation as spoiled, overprotected and lonely has persisted …
Lucy Letby: child murder case highlights need to regulate managers and improve whistleblowing procedures: The recent conviction of Lucy Letby, the neonatal nurse who murdered seven infants and attempted to murder six others while working at the Countess of Chester Hospital between 2015-2016, has raised fundamental questions about how something like this could have happened …
Should your summer-born child start school later? Here’s what the research says: Sharomka/Shutterstock If you have a child born in the summer, the prospect of starting school can pose a conundrum. In England, for example, children typically start school in the September after they turn four, which for some can mean just a few months, …
Child labour on farms in Africa: it’s important to make a distinction between what’s harmful, and what isn’t: Many children help out on family farms in Africa Nana Kofi Acquah/Flickr Children across the vast expanse of rural Africa hoe, dig, plant, carry, tend livestock, cook, scrub, care for their siblings, and undertake many other farm …
Rahima Moosa: South Africa’s only mother and child hospital is falling apart – a veteran doctor reflects on why: Papi Morake/ Gallo Images via Getty Images South Africa’s health ombudsman recently published the findings of an investigation into Rahima Moosa Mother and Child Hospital. The investigation followed the publication of a video showing pregnant women …
Child sexual abuse: what the data tells us about perpetrators and victims: Amir Bajric/Shutterstock The government has announced plans to make it a crime not to report child abuse. As part of this, the prime minister, Rishi Sunak, has vowed to “stamp out” grooming gangs who perpetuate child exploitation. Ending child sexual abuse is of …
Fuel poverty makes you sick – so why has nothing changed since I was a child living in a cold home?: ARIMAG/Shutterstock During the 1970s and 1980s I grew up in a cold home. On very cold mornings, ice would be crusted on my bedroom window and my every breath would condense in the air. …
Child victims of sexual violence aren’t heard or understood: Nigerian study: Child abuse is above the global average in Nigeria. Annette Riedl/Getty Images Violence against children is a global problem. A 2020 Global Status Report revealed that every year, almost one billion children globally encounter some form of violence, such as neglect, physical abuse and …
I was an adoring Dahl fan as a child but let’s not reissue them for a new generation: If children are built, in part, by the books they’re raised on, then I was all Roald Dahl. From my small bedroom in suburban Essex, his stories allowed me to try on new and distinctly more exciting …