hello大家好，我是達達。在過去70年里， 英國科學(xué)家跟蹤調(diào)查了成千上萬小孩子的一生 ，發(fā)現(xiàn)了令人沮喪的現(xiàn)狀：家庭出身的影響比我們想象得更大，如果你出身貧寒，就更有可能走上一條艱難的人生道路。而這個時候如果父母缺乏對孩子成長正確引導(dǎo)的技能，沒能給到足夠的關(guān)照和傾聽，會讓人生的成長更加雪上加霜。

Today I want to confess something to you, but first of all I'm going to ask you a couple of questions. How many people here have children? And how many of you are confident that you know how to bring up your children in exactly the right way?

今天我想跟你們坦白一些事情，但是首先我將要問你們一些問題。在座的有多少已經(jīng)有小孩了？你們中又有多少可以自信地說你知道如何完全正確地養(yǎng)育你的小孩？?

OK, I don't see too many hands going up on that second one, and that's my confession, too. I've got three boys; they're three, nine and 12. And like you, and like most parents, the honest truth is I have pretty much no idea what I'm doing.?

好的，我看第二個問題沒有多少人舉手，而這也是我要坦白的。我有三個兒子，他們分別是3歲、9歲和12歲。就像你，就像大多數(shù)父母一樣，老實說我真的不知道我在做什么。

?I want them to be happy and healthy in their lives, but I don't know what I'm supposed to do to make sure they are happy and healthy. There's so many books offering all kinds of conflicting advice, it can be really overwhelming. So I've spent most of their lives just making it up as I go along.?

我希望他們生活得健康、快樂，但是我不知道我應(yīng)該怎么做才能確保他們健康快樂。市面上有很多提供各種互相矛盾的建議的書籍，真的是令人不知所措。所以大多數(shù)時間我都是邊摸索邊撫養(yǎng)他們的。?

However, something changed me a few years ago, when I came across a little secret that we have in Britain. It's helped me become more confident about how I bring up my own children, and it's revealed a lot about how we as a society can help all children. I want to share that secret with you today.

然而，幾年前的一些事改變了我，那時我無意間發(fā)現(xiàn)了我們英國的一個小秘密。它使我對于如何養(yǎng)育小孩有了更多的自信，它還揭露了作為一個社會整體，我們該如何幫助所有的小孩。今天我想跟你們分享這個秘密。?

For the last 70 years, scientists in Britain have been following thousands of children through their lives as part of an incredible scientific study. There's nothing quite like it anywhere else in the world.

?在過去70年里，英國科學(xué)家跟蹤調(diào)查了成千上萬小孩子的一生，作為一項驚人的科學(xué)研究的一部分。這世上沒有另外一件像這樣的事情了。

?Collecting information on thousands of children is a really powerful thing to do, because it means we can compare the ones who say, do well at school or end up healthy or happy or wealthy as adults, and the ones who struggle much more, and then we can sift through all the information we've collected and try to work out why their lives turned out different.

收集成千上萬的小孩子的信息真的是一件很厲害的事，因為這意味著我們可以將那些在學(xué)校表現(xiàn)好或者成年后變得健康、快樂或富有的小孩跟那些苦苦掙扎的小孩進行對比，然后從收集到的信息中進行篩選試著去找出為什么他們的生活會變得大不相同。

?This British study -- it's actually a kind of crazy story. So it all starts back in 1946, just a few months after the end of the war, when scientists wanted to know what it was like for a woman to have a baby at the time.?

這一項英國的研究——事實上是一個瘋狂的故事。它最初開始于1946年，也就在二戰(zhàn)結(jié)束后的幾個月，當(dāng)時科學(xué)家想要知道，在當(dāng)時一個婦女有了小孩會是怎樣的。

?They carried out this huge survey of mothers and ended up recording the birth of nearly every baby born in England, Scotland and Wales in one week. That was nearly 14,000 babies. The questions they asked these women are very different than the ones we might ask today.?They sound really old-fashioned now.?

他們對媽媽們進行了這項巨大的調(diào)查并最終紀(jì)錄下了幾乎所有在一個星期內(nèi)出生在英格蘭、蘇格蘭和威爾士的小孩。那是將近一萬四千個小孩。他們當(dāng)時問這些婦女的問題跟我們今天要問的問題大不相同。這些問題現(xiàn)在看起來真的很守舊。?

They asked them things like, "During pregnancy, did you get your full extra ration of a pint of milk a day?" "How much did you spend on smocks, corsets, nightdresses, knickers and brassieres?" And this is my favorite one: "Who looked after your husband while you were in bed with this baby?"

他們問的問題是像這樣的：“在懷孕期間你是否每天都得到了額外配給的一品脫牛奶？”“你在罩衫、緊身內(nèi)衣睡衣、短褲以及胸罩上花了多少錢？”而我最喜歡的是這一個：“你跟小孩在床上的時候，誰照顧你丈夫？”?

Now, this wartime study actually ended up being so successful that scientists did it again. They recorded the births of thousands of babies born in 1958 and thousands more in 1970. They did it again in the early 1990s, and again at the turn of the millennium.?

這項戰(zhàn)爭時代的研究最終非常成功，科學(xué)家后來又重新進行了這項研究。他們紀(jì)錄下了成千上萬的出生于1958年的小孩并且紀(jì)錄下了更多出生于1970年的小孩。他們在上世紀(jì)90年代早期又做了一次，然后在千禧年前后又做了一次。

?Altogether, more than 70,000 children have been involved in these studies across those five generations. They're called the British birth cohorts, and scientists have gone back and recorded more information on all of these people every few years ever since. The amount of information that's now been collected on these people is just completely mind-boggling.

?總共有超過七萬個小孩參與到了這項研究中來橫跨了五代人。他們被稱為英國出生組群?？茖W(xué)家每隔幾年會重訪所有這些人并收集紀(jì)錄下更多的信息。從這些人那里收集到的信息總量，是完全不可想像的。

?It includes thousands of paper questionnaires and terabytes' worth of computer data. Scientists have also built up a huge bank of tissue samples, which includes locks of hair, nail clippings, baby teeth and DNA. They've even collected 9,000 placentas from some of the births, which are now pickled in plastic buckets in a secure storage warehouse.?

它包含了數(shù)千份的調(diào)查問卷，和巨量的電腦數(shù)據(jù)。科學(xué)家還建立了個巨大的標(biāo)本數(shù)據(jù)庫里面存有頭發(fā)、指甲、嬰兒的牙齒以及DNA。他們從一些分娩中收集了9000個胎盤，這些胎盤現(xiàn)都儲存塑料桶里，存在個安全的儲存室中。

?This whole project has become unique -- so, no other country in the world is tracking generations of children in quite this detail. These are some of the best-studied people on the planet, and the data has become incredibly valuable for scientists, generating well over 6,000 academic papers and books.?

這整個項目是獨一無二的——這世上沒有任何其它國家這么細致地對幾代小孩進行跟蹤調(diào)查。這是一些這個星球上被研究得最透徹的人，這些數(shù)據(jù)對科學(xué)家來說有無可估量的價值，由此產(chǎn)生了超過6000篇的學(xué)術(shù)論文和書籍。

?But today I want to focus on just one finding -- perhaps the most important discovery to come from this remarkable study. And it's also the one that spoke to me personally, because it's about how to use science to do the best for our children.

但是今天，我要關(guān)注的只是其中的一項發(fā)現(xiàn)——也許是這個偉大研究里最重要的發(fā)現(xiàn)，它對于我個人來說也是挺有意義的，因為它是關(guān)于如何利用科學(xué)去為孩子們做到最好的。

?So, let's get the bad news out of the way first. Perhaps the biggest message from this remarkable study is this: don't be born into poverty or into disadvantage, because if you are, you're far more likely to walk a difficult path in life.?

首先我們來說一說壞消息。也許這個偉大研究發(fā)出的最大的消息就是：不要出生在貧窮落后的家庭，因為如果你出身不好，你就更有可能走上一條艱難的人生道路。

?Many children in this study were born into poor families or into working-class families that had cramped homes or other problems, and it's clear now that those disadvantaged children have been more likely to struggle on almost every score.?They've been more likely to do worse at school, to end up with worse jobs and to earn less money.

這個研究中的許多小孩都出生在住在狹窄的房子里，或者有其它各種問題的貧困家庭或工人階級家庭，現(xiàn)在很清楚的一點是這些處于劣勢的小孩更有可能在幾乎每個方面中掙扎。他們可能在學(xué)校表現(xiàn)得更糟糕，最終找一份更糟糕的工作并賺更少的錢。

?Now, maybe that sounds really obvious, but some of the results have been really surprising, so children who had a tough start in life are also more likely to end up unhealthy as adults. They're more likely to be overweight, to have high blood pressure, and then decades down the line, more likely to have a failing memory, poor health and even to die earlier.

也許這些聽起來像是明擺的事，但是也有一些結(jié)果令人很吃驚，那些人生的起點就很艱苦的小孩也更可能在成年后身體沒有那么健康。他們更可能超重，患上高血壓，然后幾十年后，更有可能記憶衰退、身體不佳甚至死得更早。

?Now, I talked about what happens later, but some of these differences emerge at a really shockingly early age. In one study, children who were growing up in poverty were almost a year behind the richer children on educational tests, and that was by the age of just three.?

我上面談到的都是一些后期的影響，但是有一些差異是在一個令人震驚的早期就顯現(xiàn)出來的。在其中的一個研究中，貧困家庭長大的小孩在教育測試上要比富裕家庭的小孩落后一年，而這還只是在他們3歲的時候。?

These types of differences have been found again and again across the generations. It means that our early circumstances have a profound influence on the way that the rest of our lives play out. And working out why that is is one of the most difficult questions that we face today.

這種的差異在幾代人之間一次又一次的被發(fā)現(xiàn)。這意味著我們早期的生活環(huán)境對我們的余生有著更深遠的影響。而找出這其中的原因, 是我們今天所面對的最困難的問題之一。

So there we have it. The first lesson for successful life, everyone, is this: choose your parents very carefully.

我們現(xiàn)在已經(jīng)有答案了各位，獲得成功人生的第一堂課是：小心地選擇你的父母。?Don't be born into a poor family or into a struggling family.?不要出生在一個貧困的家庭。

?Now, I'm sure you can see the small problem here. We can't choose our parents or how much they earn, but this British study has also struck a real note of optimism by showing that not everyone who has a disadvantaged start ends up in difficult circumstances.?

我敢肯定你們可以看出這里的一個小問題，那就是我們不能選擇父母或者他們的收入水平，但這項英國的研究通過展現(xiàn)不是所有出身卑微的人最終都陷入困境因此帶來了希望。

?As you know, many people have a tough start in life, but they end up doing very well on some measure nevertheless, and this study starts to explain how.

正如你所知道的，很多人出身貧苦然而最終在某些程度上來說過得也不錯，而這個研究將要解釋如何實現(xiàn)這個。?So the second lesson is this: parents really matter.?所以第二課是：父母真的很重要。

?In this study, children who had engaged, interested parents, ones who had ambition for their future, were more likely to escape from a difficult start. It seems that parents and what they do are really, really important, especially in the first few years of life.

在這項研究中，那些擁有負責(zé)任的父母、得到關(guān)心的小孩會對未來有野心，并更可能從貧困的生活中逃離出來。看來父母以及他們的行為真的真的很重要，尤其是在孩子剛出生到幾歲大這段時間。

?Let me give you an example of that. In one study, scientists looked at about 17,000 children who were born in 1970. They sifted all the mountains of data that they had collected to try to work out what allowed the children who'd had a difficult start in life to go on and do well at school nevertheless.?In other words, which ones beat the odds.

讓我來舉個例子，在一個研究中，科學(xué)家調(diào)查了大約一萬七千個出生在 1970年的小孩。他們篩選了收集到的海量信息試圖去找出是什么讓這些出身貧苦的小孩能夠堅持下去并在學(xué)校表現(xiàn)出色。換句話說，是什么讓他們打敗命運的魔咒。?

The data showed that what mattered more than anything else was parents. Having engaged, interested parents in those first few years of life was strongly linked to children going on to do well at school later on.?

數(shù)據(jù)顯示，比任何事情都重要的就是父母。從小擁有一個負責(zé)任、關(guān)心孩子的父母，和孩子之后在學(xué)校表現(xiàn)好有很強的聯(lián)系。

?In fact, quite small things that parents do are associated with good outcomes for children. Talking and listening to a child, responding to them warmly, teaching them their letters and numbers, taking them on trips and visits. Reading to children every day seems to be really important, too.?

事實上，父母做的一些很小的事就能對小孩產(chǎn)生一些好的影響。傾聽他們說的，親切地回應(yīng)他們，教他們字母和數(shù)字，帶他們?nèi)ヂ眯小Ｃ刻鞛楹⒆觽兝首x故事似乎也很重要。

?So in one study, children whose parents were reading to them daily when they were five and then showing an interest in their education at the age of 10, were significantly less likely to be in poverty at the age of 30 than those whose parents weren't doing those things.

因此在一個研究中，那些父母在孩子五歲時，每天為他們朗讀故事，然后在孩子十歲時關(guān)心他們的教育的小孩們，在30歲的時候變得貧窮的可能性明顯比那些父母沒有那樣去做的小孩要少得多。?

Now, there are huge challenges with interpreting this type of science. These studies show that certain things that parents do are correlated with good outcomes for children, but we don't necessarily know those behaviors caused the good outcomes, or whether some other factor is getting in the way. For example, we have to take genes into account, and that's a whole other talk in itself.

現(xiàn)在，在解釋這門科學(xué)上面臨很大的挑戰(zhàn)。這些研究表明，父母做的某些事情跟孩子以后能有一個好的結(jié)果是相關(guān)聯(lián)的，但是我們未必知道是這些行為導(dǎo)致了好的結(jié)果或者是否還有其它的因素在妨礙這種結(jié)果。例如，我們需要也考慮基因的影響，但這個它本身就值得另外一個演講。?

But scientists working with this British study are working really hard to get at causes, and this is one study I particularly love. In this one, they looked at the bedtime routines of about 10,000 children born at the turn of the millennium.?

進行這項英國研究的科學(xué)家很努力地在尋找原因，而這也是我個人特別喜愛的一個研究。在這個研究中，他們觀察了大約一萬個出生在千禧年的小孩的睡眠時間規(guī)律。

?Were?the children going to bed at regular times, or did they go to bed at different times during the week??

這些孩子是在固定的時間睡覺，還是在一星期中每天的睡眠時間都不一樣？

?The data showed that those children who were going to bed at different times were more likely to have behavioral problems, and then those that switched to having regular bedtimes often showed an improvement in behavior, and that was really crucial, because it suggested it was the bedtime routines that were really helping things get better for those kids.

數(shù)據(jù)顯示，那些不按規(guī)定時間睡覺的小孩更有可能出現(xiàn)行為問題。然后那些不按時睡覺的小孩變成按時睡覺后，經(jīng)常會在行為上有所改善，這真的很重要，因為它表明睡眠時間規(guī)律真的能夠幫助這些小孩表現(xiàn)更好。

Here's another one to think about. In this one, scientists looked at children who were reading for pleasure. That means that they picked up a magazine, a picture book, a story book.?

這里還有另外一個需要去思考的研究。在這個研究中，科學(xué)家觀察了那些為快樂而閱讀的孩子，也就是說他們經(jīng)常拿起一本雜志、畫冊、故事書。?

The data showed that children who were reading for pleasure at the ages of five and 10 were more likely to go on in school better, on average, on school tests later in their lives. And not just tests of reading, but tests of spelling and maths as well.?

數(shù)據(jù)顯示那些5到10歲的為快樂而閱讀的孩子，通常來說更可能在學(xué)校有著更好的表現(xiàn)，在學(xué)校的測試成績也會更好。而且不僅僅是閱讀方面的測試，還包括過拼寫以及數(shù)學(xué)測試。?

This study tried to control for all the confounding factors, so it looked at children who were equally intelligent and from the same social-class background, so it seemed as if it was the reading which really helped those children go on and score better on those school tests later in their lives.

這個研究試圖控制所有的干擾因素, 因此它是觀察了同等智力水平并來自相同社會階級背景的小孩，所以看起來似乎是閱讀真的幫助了這些孩子在以后的學(xué)校測試中取得更好的成績。?

Now at the start, I said the first lesson from this study was not to be born into poverty or into disadvantage, because those children tend to follow more difficult paths in their lives.?

開始的時候，我說過從這個研究中學(xué)到的第一課是不要出生在一個貧窮落后的家庭。因為這些孩子容易走上一條更艱難的生活道路。?

But then I said that parenting matters, and that good parenting, if you can call it that, helps children beat the odds and overcome some of those early disadvantages. So wait, does that actually mean, then, that poverty doesn't matter after all??

但是后來我又說了父母很重要，好的養(yǎng)育方式，如果你覺得這就夠了，能幫助孩子打破命運的魔咒并且克服部分早期的劣勢。等一下, 這是否就意味著貧窮只是一件無關(guān)緊要的事？

?You could argue it doesn't matter if a child is born poor -- as long as their parents are good parents, they're going to do just fine. I don't believe that's true. This study shows that poverty and parenting matter.?

你可以說它無關(guān)緊要，如果一個小孩出身貧窮——只要他們的父母是稱職的，他們也會過得好。但是我不相信這種說法。研究表明貧窮和養(yǎng)育方式都對孩子影響很大。

?And one study actually put figures on that, so it looked at children growing up in persistent poverty and how well they were doing at school. The data showed that even when their parents were doing everything right -- putting them to bed on time and reading to them every day and everything else -- that only got those children so far.

?事實上有一個研究對此進行了量化對比，它觀察了那些在長期窮困的家庭長大的孩子以及他們在學(xué)校的表現(xiàn)。數(shù)據(jù)表明，即便他們的父母正確的做了每一件事——督促他們按時睡覺，每天給他們朗讀等等——也只能幫孩子到這樣。

?Good parenting only reduced the educational gap between the rich and poor children by about 50 percent. Now that means that poverty leaves a really lasting scar, and it means that if we really want to ensure the success and well-being of the next generation, then tackling child poverty is an incredibly important thing to do.

好的育兒方式也只能將富孩子和窮孩子之間的教育差距縮小一半。那意味著貧窮會留下一個持續(xù)的創(chuàng)傷，也意味著如果我們真的想要確保下一代能夠成功并且幸福，那么消除兒童貧困就是一件非常重要的事情。

?Now, what does all this mean for you and me? Are there lessons here we can all take home and use? As a scientist and a journalist, I like to have some science to inform my parenting ... and I can tell you that when you're shouting at your kids to go to bed on time, it really helps to have the scientific literature on your side.

所有這些對你和我來說又意味著什么呢？我們能從這學(xué)到什么，并為我所用嗎？作為一個科學(xué)家和記者，我想用一些科學(xué)來報告我的育兒經(jīng)驗。我可以告訴你，當(dāng)你對你的孩子大喊著讓他們按時睡覺時，知道科學(xué)數(shù)據(jù)可以幫到你更多。?

And wouldn't it be great to think that all we had to do to have happy, successful children was to talk to them, be interested in their future, put them to bed on time, and give them a book to read? Our job would be done.

如果我們只需要跟孩子交談、關(guān)心他們的未來，讓他們按時睡覺、給他們書去閱讀就能讓他們快樂、成功，這難道不是想想就讓人很高興的事嗎？我們的工作完成了。

?Now, as you can imagine, the answers aren't quite as simple as that. For one thing, this study looks at what happens to thousands and thousands of children on average, but that doesn't necessarily say what will help my child or your child or any individual child.

正如你能想像得到的，答案不止這么簡單。首先，這項研究調(diào)查了成千上萬的普通小孩，但這未必就能幫助我的或你的小孩，或任何其他的小孩。

?In the end, each of our children is going to walk their own path, and that's partly defined by the genes they inherit and of course all the experiences they have through their lives, including their interactions with us, their parents.

最終，每個小孩都有自己的路要走，而那條路部分取決于他們所繼承的基因。當(dāng)然，還有就是他們生活中的經(jīng)歷，包括他們與身為父母的我們的互動。?

I will tell you what I did after I learned all this. It's a bit embarrassing. I realized I was so busy working, and ironically, learning and writing about this incredible study of British children, that there were days when I hardly even spoke to my own British children.?

告訴你們，我在知道所有這些后所做的事。那真的是有點尷尬。我意識到我太忙于工作了，而諷刺的是，在學(xué)習(xí)和撰寫這個關(guān)于英國小孩的偉大研究時，有好多天我都難得跟我自己的英國小孩說話。

?So at home, we introduced talking time, which is just 15 minutes at the end of the day when we talk and listen to the boys. I try better now to ask them what they did today, and to show that I value what they do at school.?Of course, I make sure they always have a book to read.?

所以我們在家里引入了談話時間，也就是在每天睡覺前的15分鐘里，我們會跟男孩子們交談。我比以前更關(guān)心他們今天做了什么，并向他們表明我很重視他們在學(xué)校的表現(xiàn)。當(dāng)然，我會確保他們隨時有一本可以閱讀的書。

?I tell them I'm ambitious for their future, and I think they can be happy and do great things. I don't know that any of that will make a difference, but I'm pretty confident it won't do them any harm, and it might even do them some good.

我告訴他們，我對他們的未來充滿期望，我認(rèn)為他們能快樂并做出了不起的事。我不知道我做的這些是否對他們有影響，但是我很相信至少不會對他們造成傷害，甚至可能對他們有一些幫助。?

Ultimately, if we want happy children, all we can do is listen to the science, and of course, listen to our children themselves.

最后，如果我們想要孩子們快樂，我們所能做的就是聽信科學(xué)，當(dāng)然，還有就是聆聽孩子們的聲音。