Childhood

 Content

1. Meaning of Childhood
2. Developmental Task of Childhood
3. Characteristics of childhood

Meaning of Childhood

Period of Childhood: from 6 to 12 years of age.

On the basis of general characteristics of Childhood, it is sub categorized into:

Late childhood psychologically appears to be more significant, and for it is known as the pseudo maturity.

Till late childhood, certain maturity characteristics like sense of loyalty, discipline, and obedience to school rules are observed. His/her thoughts, feelings, and activities seem to be more controlled, unlike the stage of infancy.

Childhood is generally known as Schooling Age.

Developmental Task During Late Childhood

Havighurst’s developmental tasks during late childhood are:

Characteristics of Childhood

a) Problem Age

• Most parents consider childhood as the problem age or troublesome age.
• The reason that behavior problems dominate the childhood years is that children start developing distinctive personality and demanding independence, which in most of the cases they are incapable of handling.
• In addition to behavioral problems, they have frequent tantrums, bad dreams at night etc.

b) Playfulness

• Generally, in childhood stage, it is the school environment that child starts developing his/her willingness to play.
• Playing in groups and group activities makes children more social, loyal, cooperative and disciplined.
• The basic instinct to play in the stage is intense.

c) Gang Age

• Childhood is also called the Gang Age, where acceptance and belonging to a group a same age mates is prominent.
• Children feel a great sense of loyalty and allegiance to their groups.
• Children also form certain rules and conduct for their gang and uphold them quite faithfully and obediently.

d) Exploratory Age

• Many psychologists consider childhood as exploratory age because the children have the curiosity to know about everything and everyone they find interest in.
• On common way of exploring in childhood is by asking question like what is it, how it works etc. Therefore this period is also called Questioning Age.

e) Socialization

• A child’s socialization starts in his/her family. During childhood stage, child’s socialization extends to school.
• In fact, it is the classroom and playground environment that helps a child to develop character, learn to express his/her views and listen to others, learns to behave in a group, share etc.
• He/she also learn some social attitudes, norms, morals and rules through active participation in society.

f) Individuality

• Children start their life as dependent beings that who are totally dependent/ reliant on others for survival and satisfaction of needs but as they enter the childhood start they grow towards independence and prefer doing their work themselves.
• This gradual process is influenced by both biological changes and their environment.
• They start seeking greater autonomy and involvement in decisions affecting them.

g) Capacity to Learn

• At this stage, children are curious to learn and acquire readiness to learn.
• During childhood, children learn a lot due to their curious and exploratory nature.
• Beside this, they show awareness and a sense of subordination to school rules and discipline.
• Children tend to learn new knowledge and get new experiences by imitation.

h) Intellectual Ability

• In childhood stage, intellectual and perpetual abilities are quite evident.
• Intelligence quotient in this stage is considerably developed.
• He/she is in the position to exercise his/her power of memory, attention, thinking, imagination and can solve problems on their own.

i) Acquired Interest

• While at the entrance to pre-schools, children do not have any specific interest in mind.
• However, in late childhood stage, s/he develops specific interest and sentiments towards specific subjects, fields of activities, games etc. And become more selective about their choice of subjects to study or games to play.

j) Development of Creativity

• Late childhood is the stage of identification and development of creative talents and abilities in children.
•  He/she no longer remain blind imitator but on the basis of their cognition give evidences of their originality and creativity in thought, actions and feelings.

k) Physical Growth

• An average child grows up to 2.5 inches in height and gains about 5-7 pounds a year during early childhood.
• During late childhood, there is an annual increase of up to 2-4 inches in height and about 3-5 pound gain in weight in children.
• The physical growth follows predictable pattern, although there are variations in the quantity and pace of growth.

l) Vulnerability

• The fact that children are still growing and developing both physically and mentally during this stage, make them vulnerable to harm.
•  Therefore, children in this stage are more vulnerable to risks like illness, malnutrition, environmental pollution etc than adults.
• The degree of vulnerability varies according to the child’s age, nutrition intake, individual characteristics and the circumstances he/she lives in.