Childhood

Childhood runs from about two years to the start of adolescence: early childhood (about 2 to 6) and late childhood (about 6 to 11 or 12).

Physical growth follows two principles:

• Cephalocaudal: from head to foot. The head and upper body develop before the legs.
• Proximodistal: from the centre outwards. The trunk and arms develop before the hands and fingers.
• Gross motor skills use large muscles (running, jumping); fine motor skills use small ones (holding a pencil, buttoning a shirt). A preference for the right or left hand also becomes clear.

Thinking in early childhood (preoperational stage) is symbolic: children use words, drawings and pretend play to stand for things. Its limits:

• Egocentrism: seeing things only from one's own point of view. A small child may hold up a picture facing themselves and ask, 'Can you see it?'
• Animism: believing lifeless objects are alive and have feelings ('My teddy is cold, give him a blanket').
• Centration: focusing on one feature only. Pour juice from a short wide glass into a tall thin one, and the child says there is now more, looking only at height.

Late childhood (concrete operational stage). Thinking becomes logical about real, concrete things. Children understand conservation (the amount of juice stays the same when poured into a different glass) and reversible operations (pouring it back shows nothing changed). Thinking is more flexible, and language grows fast, which makes this a good age to learn another language.

Socio-emotional development:

• Children describe themselves first in physical terms ('I am tall, I have a red bicycle') and later in psychological ones ('I am kind, I am good at maths').
• Friends and comparison with peers matter more and more; children learn gender roles (gender is the social side of being male or female; sex is the biological side).
• Erikson: initiative versus guilt. Children who are allowed to try things for themselves develop initiative; children who are always stopped or done-for may feel guilty and unsure of themselves.

Moral development (Lawrence Kohlberg), from how children answer moral dilemmas:

• Before about nine, right and wrong are set by external authority: what parents say, done to get rewards and avoid punishment.
• Later, children follow rules to win approval and be seen as good, and respect law and order.
• Finally many people develop their own personal moral code, holding to it even when friends pressure them to do otherwise.