As a child, what did you want to do when you grew up?
At times, I wanted to be a radio DJ, a musician and a forester. One consistent thread was a love of science, so when I found out I could train to be a doctor and study what makes people tick, I knew I had a plan.
Advertisement
Explain your work in one easy paragraph.
The biggest part of my work is focused on the role of play in child development, including in learning and in physical and mental health. We try to use that knowledge to develop interventions or therapies to give children the best start in life.
How does play benefit children?
Play is the language of childhood, certainly early childhood. Children learn, explore, express themselves, develop relationships, imagine and manage emotions and experiences through play. It鈥檚 clear that active, engaged play has particular benefits for both physical and mental health.
Are some kinds of play better than others?
A key part of play is that it can just be fun. Having fun has value in itself, and not just for children. But different aspects and types of play help children develop all sorts of skills: physical play for fitness and coordination, for example, or play with peers and parents to help develop social skills. Children should have the space and the time to try out different types of play, and also to follow their interests.
Do you have a favourite game?
My kids are now older, so we tend to play more board games together. My favourite at the moment is probably Settlers of Catan. At the next family party, we鈥檒l be trying out a game called Happy Salmon, which one of my colleagues introduced us to.
Did you have to overcome any particular challenges to get where you are today?
As recently as the 1980s, at least one medical school that I applied to was using an algorithm to select students that was systematically biased against women and 鈥渇oreign-sounding names鈥�.
鈥淗aving fun has value in itself, and not just for children鈥�
What achievement are you most proud of?
Together with some colleagues at the University of Oxford, I did some work looking at how . We were among the first people to explore those links.
Is there a discovery or achievement you wish you鈥檇 made yourself?
A bit over 10 years ago, a team at Cardiff University started studying families attending IVF clinics, to look at links between mental health in parents and, later, in children. They were able to look at parents and children who had different genetic and environmental relationships with each other, and so begin to disentangle these effects. It was a simple idea, and yet so brilliant.
How has your field of study changed in the time you have been working in it?
We understand a lot more about how many mental health problems originate in early life. Experience in pregnancy sends a kind of weather report to the fetus to give it indicators of how life might be and to begin the process of preparation for that life. That is extraordinary and there is still a huge amount to learn.
What scientific development do you hope to see in your lifetime?
I have to hope that someone makes huge advances in carbon capture technology, or some other development that renders fossil fuels redundant. Without that, or some other unforeseen change, it鈥檚 hard to feel hopeful for future generations.
How useful will your skills be after the apocalypse?
I probably wouldn鈥檛 be as useful as Bear Grylls, but being able to introduce games to people will allow them to have fun, and also build relationships. That might help us all to survive a bit better and make life feel a little bit more worthwhile.
What鈥檚 the best piece of advice anyone ever gave you?
鈥淲hen you鈥檙e chewing on life鈥檚 gristle, don鈥檛 grumble, give a whistle, and this鈥檒l help things turn out for the best, annnnnnd鈥︹�� 鈥� not specifically for me, but thanks Eric Idle, it鈥檚 been helpful.
Paul Ramchandani is the
