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Laverne Antrobus
Antrobus in 2009
Born	Laverne Antrobus 1966 (age 57–58)
Nationality	British
Occupation(s)	Child psychologist, television expert
Years active	1990s–present
Known for	Appearances on the BBC and Channel 5

Laverne Antrobus (born 1966) is a British child psychologist. She trained at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust in the 1990s. Throughout the 2000s and 2010s, Antrobus has hosted documentaries and appeared as an expert on the BBC and Channel 5.

Career

Antrobus has worked as a primary school teacher. She later trained in the specialist mental health National Health Service trust Tavistock and Portman. She has worked as a consultant child and educational psychologist since the 1990s. Antrobus has led training relating to children's mental health in schools and community mental health services.

From 2004 to 2006, Antrobus appeared in the BBC Three series Little Angels and its spin-off version Teen Angels. A documentary series which followed families' daily life, Little Angels featured child psychology experts giving advice to parents about how to deal with behavioural problems in their young children. Teen Angels followed the same premise with teenagers in the place of young children. The programmes ran for seven series, with a total of 47 episodes (including one special). Antrobus was one of four psychologists on the show, including presenters Tanya Byron and Stephen Briers. The programme Little Angels was nominated for a BAFTA Award in 2005.

In 2007, Antrobus appeared throughout the fourth series of The House of Tiny Tearaways, a BBC Three reality programme about parents and misbehaving children. She was in the role of child psychologist, along with Elizabeth Kilbey, whilst Claudia Winkelman served as presenter. The series consisted of 20 episodes.

Antrobus presented the hour-long documentary Biology of Dads, which follows a father with Couvade syndrome and explores scientific knowledge about fatherhood. It comments on a father's role in language development, men's hormonal changes after becoming a father, and the influence a father has in his daughter's choice of partner. Biology of Dads aired on 22 June 2010 on BBC Four. On a similar topic, Antrobus appeared in 2010 in the BBC Four documentary Men About the House, a review of fathers in television.

Airing on 11 August 2011, Carrot or Stick? was a Horizon documentary produced for BBC Two in which Antrobus discussed the changing understanding of the science behind parenting over the past 50 years. In 2012, Antrobus hosted the three-part BBC Four documentary series Growing Children, which detailed child development of subjects with autism, obsessive–compulsive disorder and dyslexia.

In 2018, Antrobus appeared on the radio programme Woman's Hour. In August 2019, Antrobus starred in the four-part Channel 5 documentary series Violent Child, Desperate Parents, which follows families with violent and misbehaving children.

In October 2019, Antrobus co-presented a two-part documentary for 5Star, Britain's Naughtiest Nursery, with Jayne Ashbourne. The programme follows Antrobus working with children aged three to five who have been excluded from nurseries due to poor behaviour. One childcare expert criticised the programme for using the word "naughty" to describe children during a stage of development.

In 2020, Antrobus appeared on the BBC children's news programme Newsround, giving advice on anxiety induced by climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic, and explaining the effects of anxiety disorders.

In 2007, Antrobus book Ain't Misbehavin': How to Understand Your Child and Get the Best From Them was published by Pearson Education. Antrobus contributed to the 2017 book Help Your Kids With Growing Up, published by DK. Antrobus has additionally written articles for the BBC study resource Bitesize and the newspapers HuffPost and The Independent. In her role in the television industry, she has served as a judge on award panels for the Royal Television Society, British Academy Children's Awards and Grierson Awards.

In 2022 Antrobus appeared alongside Kate Winslet in an episode of the series I Am....

Philanthropy

Antrobus has worked with the charity Siya Phulaphula "We Listen", which provides mental health training for South Africans living in London. She is a director on the trustee board for ChildHope UK, a charity which works with marginalised children and provides education in Africa and Asia.

Credits

References

1. ^ Williams, Helen (6 August 2019). "Meet Laverne Antrobus from Channel 5's Violent Child, Desperate Parents". Retrieved 15 March 2020.
2. ^ "Laverne Antrobus". HuffPost. Retrieved 15 March 2020.
3. ^ "Laverne Antrobus". Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust. Retrieved 15 March 2020.
4. "Bafta TV Awards 2005: The winners". British Broadcasting Corporation. 17 April 2005. Archived from the original on 19 December 2006. Retrieved 15 March 2020.
5. "All New House of Tiny Tearaways". British Broadcasting Corporation. Archived from the original on 23 July 2019. Retrieved 15 March 2020.
6. "BBC Four - Biology of Dads". British Broadcasting Corporation. Archived from the original on 19 October 2019. Retrieved 15 March 2020.
7. Gilbert, Gerard (17 June 2010). "Patriarch Games - The Role of the Father". The Independent. Archived from the original on 5 August 2016. Retrieved 15 March 2020.
8. "BBC Four - Men About the House". British Broadcasting Corporation. Archived from the original on 27 August 2012. Retrieved 15 March 2020.
9. "BBC Four - Carrot or Stick? A Horizon Guide to Raising Kids". British Broadcasting Corporation. Archived from the original on 18 July 2019. Retrieved 15 March 2020.
10. Hogan, Phil (14 August 2011). "Rewind TV: The Borgias; Chilean Miners: 17 Days Buried Alive; Carrot or Stick: A Horizon Guide to Raising Kids; Empire of the Desert Ants – review". The Observer. Archived from the original on 9 September 2018. Retrieved 15 March 2020.
11. "BBC Four - Growing Children". British Broadcasting Corporation. Archived from the original on 5 April 2015. Retrieved 15 March 2020.
12. "Laverne Antrobus on Woman's Hour. Discussion about the impact of household conflict on children. 22 Nov 2018, BBC Radio 4 [Starts at 12:20]". Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust. 22 November 2018. Retrieved 15 March 2020.
13. "Britain's Naughtiest Nursery - Channel 5". 5Star. Retrieved 15 March 2020.
14. McEvoy, Sophie (15 October 2019). "Will Britain's Naughtiest Nursery Be Back For Series 2?". Bustle. Retrieved 15 March 2020.
15. Hanna, Aoife (3 October 2019). "Laverne Antrobus Is Heading Up 'Britain's Naughtiest Nursery' & Here's What You Need To Know About Her". Bustle. Archived from the original on 4 October 2019. Retrieved 15 March 2020.
16. Albert, Angeline (7 October 2019). "Childcare leader condemns Britain's naughtiest nursery for labelling kids 'naughty'". Retrieved 15 March 2020.
17. "Five tips if you're feeling worried about climate change". Newsround. 3 March 2020. Archived from the original on 11 March 2020. Retrieved 15 March 2020.
18. "Advice if you're worried about the coronavirus". Newsround. 14 March 2020. Retrieved 15 March 2020.
19. "Inside My Head: When is anxiety a bad thing?". Newsround. 4 February 2020. Archived from the original on 18 February 2020. Retrieved 15 March 2020.
20. Ain't Misbehavin': How to Understand Your Child and Get the Best From Them. WorldCat. OCLC 181067742.
21. "Laverne Antrobus". The Independent. Retrieved 15 March 2020.
22. Hibbs, James (8 December 2022). "I Am Ruth cast: Meet the stars of Kate Winslet's Channel 4 drama". Radio Times. Retrieved 30 September 2024.
23. "Charity Details - Siya Phulaphula "We Listen"". gov.uk. Retrieved 15 March 2020.
24. "Our Charity Trustees". ChildHope UK. Retrieved 15 March 2020.

External links

• Growing Children: Interview with psychologist, Laverne Antrobus
• Laverne Antrobus at IMDb
• Laverne Antrobus at the British Film Institute

• BBC television presenters
• British people of Barbadian descent
• British television presenters
• Channel 5 (British TV channel)
• Child psychologists
• British women television presenters
• Living people
• British women psychologists
• 1966 births