Scientist says parents should teach their children swear words and educate them on their meaning

She thinks that children should be allowed to swear at home

A scientist wants parents to educate their children on swear words at home and the appropriate time to use them, instead of forbidding them.

Appearing on ITV's Good Morning Britain, Dr Emma Byrne, a neuroscientist and author of “Swearing is Good for You: The Amazing Science of Bad Language,” revealed that she believes children as young as two should learn swear words and the impact the words can have from their parents - rather than from their peers on the playground.

“I want to equip parents to cope with that moment of shame and embarrassment of my kid swore in a place that was inappropriate,” she said. “Instead of saying ‘we are going to shut this conversation down,’ talking about why that is inappropriate.”

Before the segment, a reporter had interviewed families about their attitudes towards swearing.

In one of the interviews, a father said: “I don’t think it’s good parenting to let your kids swear.”

His young daughter added that she doesn’t use swear words because “they could affect other people’s feelings.”

According to Dr Byrne, the “little girl” was right because “you have to think about people’s feelings.”

Dr Byrne wants children to learning swear words and their meanings at home (ITV)

She then said swearing isn’t “directly correlated with being awful to people. There are ways to be really vile without using a swear word,” such as calling someone ugly or stupid - and it depends on children knowing the impact of their words.

"If we don't talk about swearing with our kids and they learn swearing just from their classmates on the playground, they're not going to have a sense of how swearing affects people's feelings," she concluded.

Anna Williamson, presenter and life coach on GMB, took offence to Dr Byrne’s suggestion that children should be taught or hear bad words at all, especially at home.

“People take offence to it. Swearing is not socially acceptable. There’s a reason we can’t swear on live TV and it’s because it does offend,” Williamson countered.

Not everyone was convinced by Dr Byrne (ITV)

Williamson also said she understands the point about teaching swearing from an “educational” perspective but “it’s about creating those boundaries particularly in our children,” and that she would be mortified if her child swore in public.

Dr Byrne’s advice divided viewers, however, the majority were against her suggestion that children should learn curse words from their parents.

On a Twitter poll following the episode, 72 per cent of respondents said they did not agree that “it’s wrong to stop children from swearing and that we should instead be teaching kids as young as two the meaning of rude words.”

“I don’t think children should be encouraged to swear… we should teach children good manners and the appropriate way to behave,” one person responded.

Another added: “This woman saying that children should be allowed to swear encapsulates why kids are so messed up these days. She’s effectively saying that manners and discipline have no place in the home.”

Others defended Dr Byrne’s point on the basis that parents should try to teach their children everything.

“You should be teaching them the meaning of everything and explaining what is good or bad,” wrote one person.