The House of Tiny Tearaways

"The House of Tiny Tearaways" is a BBC Three reality TV show hosted by Dr Tanya Byron and Claudia Winkleman and produced by [http://www.outlineproductions.co.uk Outline Productions] .The show brings three families experiencing problems into a large, purpose-built house where they are monitored and helped for a week. The show is vaguely similar to programmes like Big Brother, in that all the rooms have cameras in them and the families are frequently monitored in their activities with the audience shown highlights of a particular day.

Each family stays in the house for six days. The first day is spent on monitoring before having very honest and direct discussions with the parents about the issues and how they can be dealt with. The families are then guided through courses of action, exercises and deliberate changes of behaviour on the parents' side to deal with the problems. Tanya does not do this entirely singlehandedly, as one element of the programme is the support the parents receive from the other families who are in the house with them at the same time.

The show is characterised by scenes of children misbehaving, therapy sessions between Tanya and the parents of the children (which are often very emotional and are sometimes the first time they've ever really discussed the problems they're facing), tasks in and outside the house which the families are set to help them practice the skills they've learnt (often having to do things they would normally find difficult, like take a child with eating problems to a restaurant). By the ending, the families review any improvements or shortcomings they've made.