Question: what do you wish to accomplish with your work?

Alice Jones Bartoli answered on 14 Jun 2011:

The aim of my research is to find out more about the different reasons why children develop behavioural problems, and use that information to develop a range of interventions that can be used by teachers and parents to work with children and help them to improve their behaviour.

I don’t think that I can stop bad behaviour, I don’t think that I’ll be able to stop all children from growing up into criminals, but I do want to change the lives of some children. So far, our fairly small resesarch project has managed to stop a few children from being sent away to a school far away because of their behaviour. These children are now learning to read and write, and are happier at school – their families are also happier; this is really important.

I also really want people to think more carefully about problem behaviour in children. If you see a child in the street screaming and behaving badly, you might think that their parents aren’t doing a good job, or that the child is ‘naughty’, but children aren’t finished products, and we need to think about what their screaming and aggression is all about.