Tanya Byron
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Tanya Byron MSc PsychD is a British psychologist who became a celebrity in 2004/5 as the resident expert on parenting shows Little Angels and the House of Tiny Tearaways (these programmes are amongst several that have kickstarted the currently popular genre of parenting programmes in the UK). She has also co-authored a book on parenting based on the Little Angels show.
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[edit] Personal life
Her father was the film and television director John Sichel.
She is married to The Bill actor Bruce Byron with whom she has two children called Lily and Jack.
She is the patron of Prospex, a charity which works with young people in North London.
In 2005, Dr Byron featured on French & Saunders Christmas Special as herself, who came in to sort out Dawn and Jennifer's childish behaviour on the show. Currently, Dr. Byron is co-writing The Life and Times of Vivienne Vyle with Jennifer Saunders.
[edit] TV Programmes
[edit] Little Angels
Tanya became a household name first working on the British TV show Little Angels, a docu-soap that follows the lives of families where the children have behavioural problems that are causing the parents difficulty (Tanya is one of several experts who reappear on the programme). The show is seen as a 'life line' by the parents who are effectively calling in the experts to help them fix a problem that they believe beyond their ability to fix. Tanya, as the psychologist expert, monitors the behaviour of the family and the children before discussing with the parents the real underlying causes of the problem (which are nearly always in some way either caused by or contributed to by the parents themselves). She then discusses a course of action with them and later coaches them in how to change their own and their children's behaviour to improve the situation (this is frequently done in scenes where the family is filmed doing something together with the parents receiving advice from the attending professional via an ear piece). The show is intended to be instructive to viewers in how to deal with common problems as well as of real help to the family being filmed (and of course entertaining).
[edit] The House of Tiny Tearaways
- Main article: The House of Tiny Tearaways
In 2005 Tanya began to host her own show called The House of Tiny Tearaways, a reality tv style show that brings three families experiencing problems into a large, purpose-built house where they are monitored and aided for a week. The show is vaguely similar to programmes like Big Brother, in that all the rooms have cameras in them and the families are frequently monitored in their activities with the audience shown highlights of a particular day. Each family stays in the house for six days in which time Tanya monitors them all for one day before having very honest and direct discussions with the parents about the issues and how they can be dealt with, and then guiding the families through courses of action, exercises and deliberate changes of behaviour on the parents' side to deal with the problems. Tanya does not do this entirely singlehandedly, as one element of the programme is the support the parents receive from the other families who are in the house with them at the same time.
The show is characterised by: scenes of children misbehaving, therapy sessions between Tanya and the parents of the children (which are often very emotional and are sometimes the first time they've ever really discussed the problems they're facing), tasks in and outside the house which the families are set to help them practice the skills they've learnt (often having to do things they would normally find difficult, like take a child with eating problems to a restaurant) and in almost all cases a positive ending where the families all review the often vast improvements they've made.
Whilst the show is intended to be entertaining it differs from other reality tv shows which are often 'car crash' entertainment at the expense of those on screen. Instead the show highlights how difficult parenting can be, but also how virtually any problem a child is presenting can be tackled with a change in behaviour by the parents and the belief that it can be done. Much of the programme is extremely heartwarming with scenes of parents and children reconnecting after the problems that have driven them apart are solved, and with Tanya teaching the adults how to better enjoy the experience of being parents and consequently love their children that little bit more.
[edit] External links
- Interview with Tanya at Raisingkids.co.uk
- Interview with Tanya about her own experiences as a parent at Timesonline
- Meet the Author - Tanya Byron discusses her book (requires Quicktime) (link not working at present)
- Tanya Byron at the Internet Movie Database
