Life at 7 (ATOM Study Guide)

The fourth installment of the Life series features the ordinary and extraordinary life events of ten Australian children as they learn to deal with life's hurdles and challenges at the pivotal age of seven.

The Life series is a penetrating, observational documentary television series that chronicles the life stories of a group of Australian children as they grow from infancy to adolescence, observing their development and recording important life events as they unfold. Every two years the filmmakers revisit these children and their families to gain a detailed snapshot of their lives and conduct illuminating behavioural experiments in the purpose-built Life Lab that give a fascinating insight into their inner world.

The Jesuits famously said 'give me the child at seven and I'll show you the man'. Now that they have reached this milestone year, Life at 7 continues the journeys of these children, exploring whether they are really mini versions of the adults they will one day become. Drawing on seven years of archival material, we gain insight into the way the lives of our kids have so far been shaped by their environments.

It wasn't only the Jesuits who recognised the age of seven as a crucial milestone in a child's life. The Spartans of ancient Greece sent their children out of home to learn how to become soldiers at the age of seven and the Prophet Mohammad once said 'be gentle with your children in the first seven years and in the following seven years be firm'. Why then has seven traditionally been such a pivotal age in a child's life and what did all these groups see in the potential of seven-year-olds? Perhaps it was precisely that – potential.

The Life series has exclusive access to a wealth of scientific findings from Australia's unique, federally-funded longitudinal study 'Growing up in Australia', where 10,000 children and their families are interviewed over fifteen years to unveil never-before-captured sociological and scientific data. Life at 7 runs alongside this study and provides real life-illustrations of the scientific findings, bringing a human face to the statistics.

Over two episodes, Life at 7 takes a deeper look at the way the inherited temperaments and social influences have shaped the lives of these ten children, and the increasing influence of peers and family relationships in their ever-expanding worlds.

Observational footage is interwoven with brand new behavioural experiments and psychological observations in the Life Lab, designed to observe temperament and peer group behaviour under a microscope. The results are fascinating and insightful.

As the lives of these children unfold, we grapple with the very essence of what it takes to make us all thriving, creative and happy human beings. Welcome to Life at 7.

This program will have interest and relevance for middle to senior-secondary and tertiary students in the following curriculum areas:

• Health and Human Development
• Biology
• General Science
• Values Education
• Psychology
• Sociology
• Exploring Early Childhood (Secondary)
• SOSE/HSIE (Secondary)
• Child and Family Services (Tertiary)
• Child Development Studies (Tertiary)
• Community and Family Studies (Tertiary)