What is childhood?
Childhood
What is childhood?
Childhood is one of the stages of human development and, in biological terms, it ranges from the moment of birth to the beginning of adolescence.
However, according to the provisions of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, approved by the UN in 1989, an infant is any person under 18 years of age. As this convention has been adopted by most of the countries of the world, it is also stipulated in their respective laws.
The term childhood comes from the Latin infantia , which means "inability to speak", alluding to the early phase of this stage in which the child does not have the ability to articulate words, but also to the fact that formerly it was considered that only adults could speak in public.
Childhood characteristics
During childhood, vital physical and psycho-emotional changes take place. However, one of the most relevant features of this stage is the development of cognitive qualities, which are what help shape intelligence.
All these changes are progressive, and occur in two stages:
Early childhood
It is the stage of development that goes from birth to seven years. The main characteristics of this phase are:
- Absence of abdominal development , so the abdomen still looks very round.
- Erect posture.
- Increase in size : about 7 to 12 cm per year, on average
- Weight gain : about 2 kilos per year, on average.
- Increase in brain mass : in fact, it is the stage of greatest brain development.
- Interaction with the environment using their own body : the child climbs stairs and descends stairs, tries to climb on chairs, uses their hands and the strength of their arms to reach relatively heavy objects in proportion to their size and weight, etc.
- Toilet training : although in early childhood the child achieves control of his urination, sometimes he may have urinary problems while finishing his adaptation process.
- Speech development : between 12 months and 2 years the infant begins to communicate through short words.
- Hand-eye coordination is fine-tuned : so he can pick up, reach for, and gather objects.
- Development of the ability to make basic classifications : the child begins to group objects by color or shape.
Second childhood
For many authors, second childhood is another stage of development called childhood, while others maintain the concept that childhood ends with adolescence. In any case, this phase includes changes that appear from the age of seven until the beginning of adolescence, which ranges from 11 to 13 years on average.
Here are some characteristics of second childhood:
- Significant increase in vocabulary: the number of words used increases as a result of greater social interaction and entry to formal education.
- Increased ability and desire to explore the environment : at this stage, children continue to recognize their own physical abilities, and use them to interact with the outside world and with others.
- There is a clear differentiation between the child and the mother figure : he already understands that he is an individual with his own thoughts.
- Fantasy thinking predominates: in this phase, children can continue to be attracted to play activities linked to fantasy (reading stories, games, representations) but they can differentiate them from the real world.
- The development of logical thinking begins , and the ability to perform basic mathematical operations.
- Update date: March 7, 2021.