Children 3 Role Author | Name Laverne Antrobus Partner Andy Barter | |
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Occupation PsychologistwriterTelevision presenter Known for "Carrot or Stick"- a horizon guide to raising children "Biology of Dads" War in the WombLittle AngelsTeen AngelsThe All New House of Tiny TearawaysGrowing Children | ||
Laverne Antrobus (born in 1966) is a British psychologist, author and television presenter. She works for the Tavistock Clinic in London as a consultant child and educational psychologist. Antrobus is also a child therapist.
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Media roles
Laverne Antrobus presented BBC's Carrot or Stick (2011) which looked at Horizon (BBC TV series) archives to find out how science has shaped our approach to parenting and education over the last fifty years. From lessons in motherly love to tough discipline to bribery tactics, she asks what's the best approach when it comes to bringing up children.
In Biology of Dads, a BBC Four documentary which aired in June 2010 for the first time, Laverne reported on new research regarding the biological and psychological influences and impact of a father on his children and the extraordinary hidden biological changes that occur in fathers and their children when they interact. The new research found that fathers can influence their offspring from before birth right up till the time they choose their own partners. Laverne Antrobus in her documentary shows us what fathers according to the research can offer their children, that mothers instinctually might not: Fathers promote their children's independence and encourage them to explore while still setting clear boundaries. And fathers teach their kids how to understand and accept the rules of the grown up world they are about to enter. Every child is a product of its parents, influenced by both the mother and the father. And when a little girl grows up, her father will provide a model of how men should treat her.
Laverne also presented the BBC television series War in the Womb, In the series she investigates the theory of foetal-maternal conflict, an idea championed by Harvard evolutionary biologist Professor David Haig (biologist) and controversially believed by some to be to blame for a wide range of behavioural and psychological disorders such as Tourettes, depression and autism. She was also a child therapist on the BBC television series Little Angels, Teen Angels and The All New House of Tiny Tearaways. Laverne was included on the Power List 2010 and 2011 (Britain's 100 most influential black people) she was said to be influential because .... "she quite literally changes the lives of so many people she works with and does so on a grand scale"
Publications
Personal life
Laverne lives with her partner, photographer Andy Barter in London. They have three children. She is involved with several charities including Shelter. She is also a committee member of Siya Phulaphula. Siya Philaphula was launched in 2001 to provide training in therapeutic communication with children and to assist and support workers engaged in community work with disadvantaged black children and their families in South Africa.