More often than not, children are not a carbon copy of their parents though they share their genes.
The uniqueness of individuals has been a subject of much research and R.H. Belmaker, president of International Neuropsychiatric Association, decoded some of the mysteries to a select audience here on Sunday.
At the 14th M.V. Arunachalam Endowment Oration hosted by Vellayan Chettiar Trust, speaking on ‘Why do children turn out the way they do? A neuropsychiatric viewpoint’, he walked his audience through a series of research done in the late 1990s to explain the forces influencing a child’s development.
To drive home the point, he gave the example of how children pick up a language. While an adult and a child may learn the language proficiently, the adult speaks with an accent, while the child has none. Despite spending fewer hours with peers, children “learn from the group they feel represent their future,” he explained.
A. Vellayan, trustee of the Vellayan Chettiar Trust, said the M.V. Arunachalam Centre for Information and Education in Neurosciences aspired to develop a viable and replicable model of service provision for low and middle income countries.
M.V. Murugappan presented the endowment award to Prof. Belmark. E.S. Krishnamoorthy, founder, Neurokrish, moderated the talk.
