Childhood

Childhood is the age span ranging from birth to adolescence. According to Piaget's theory of cognitive development, childhood consists of the preoperational and concrete operational stages.

Childhood is seen differently across cultures and history. The way children have been treated across history has changed, from criminal punishment to work conditions.

Childhood is typically divided into:

• Toddlerhood = 2-3 years
• Early childhood (preschool years) = 4-6 years
• Middle childhood = 7-11 years
• Late childhood (including adolescence) = 12-18 years

Vygotsky's theories stress the integral role that social interaction has on the development of cognition. He strongly believed that community is especially important in the process of "making meaning". He believed social learning preceded development, unlike Piaget's notion that childrens' development must necessarily precede their learning.

Much important learning by the child happens through social interactions with a skilled tutor. Vygotsky refers to this as cooperative or collaborative dialogue. The child understands the actions or instructions provided by the tutor, then internalises the information, using it to guide or regulate their own performance.

Zone of proximal development (ZPD): important concept that relates to the difference between what a child can achieve independently, and what a child can achieve with guidance and encouragement from a knowledgeable person.

Play (particularly imaginary play) is important as a cultural tool for cognitive development and abstract thinking. Pretend play requires ability to decouple from perceptual information impinging on your senses.

Freud's psychosexual stages

• Oral (0-1 year): mouth is the pleasure centre for development
• Anal (1-3 years): toddlers and preschool aged children begin to experiment with urine and feces. The control they learn to exert over their bodily functions is manifested in toilet-training
• Phallic (3-6 years): children take pleasure in their genitals during this stage, and according to Freud, begin to struggle with sexual desires toward the opposite sex parent (Oedipus and Electra complex)
• Latency (6-adolescence): sexual instincts subside during this stage, and children begin to further develop their superego/conscience
• Genital (adolescence onwards): sexual impulses reemerge

These stages involve the determination of sexual identity. Fixation at any one stage results in neruosis. 

Erikson's stages of psychosocial development are based upon Freud's psychosexual theory. Erikson proposed that we're motivated by the need to achieve competence in certain areas of our lives. At each stage, there's a crisis or task that we need to resolve.

• Trust vs. mistrust (birth - 12 months): infants must learn adults can be trusted. Unresponsive caregivers who don't meet their baby's needs can enforce feelings of anxiety, fear and mistrust
• Autonomy vs. shame/doubt (1-3 years): learn that they can control their actions and act on their environment to get results. Works to establish independence. If denied the opportunity to act on their environment, they may begin to doubt their abilities which could lead to low self-esteem and feelings of shame
• Initiative vs. guilt (3-6 years): children are capable of initiating activities and asserting control over their world through social interactions and play. The child must be allowed to explore within limits and be supported with their choice
• Industry vs. inferiority (6-12 years): children begin to compare themselves with their peers to see how they measure up. They either develop a sense of pride and accomplishment in certain areas, or feel inadequate

• Identity vs. role confusion (12-18 years): an adolescent's main task is developing a sense of self. Adolescents successful at this stage have a strong sense of identity and are able to remain true to their beliefs and values in the face of problems
• Intimacy vs. isolation (20s-40s): after we've developed a sense of self in adolescence, we are ready to share our life with others. Erikson said we must have a strong sense of self before we can develop successful intimate relationships. Adults who don't develop a positive self-concept in adolescence may experience feelings of loneliness and emotional isolation.
• Generativity vs. stagnation (40s to mid 60s): generativity involves finding your life's work and contributing to the development of others. Also about engaging in meaningful and productive work which contributes positively to society. Those who don't master this task may experience stagnation and feel as though they're not leaving a mark on the world in a meaningful way
• Integrity vs. despair (mid 60s to end of life): people in late adulthood reflect on their lives and feel either a sense of satisfaction or sense of failure. People who feel proud of their accomplishments feel a sense of integrity and can look back on their lives with few regrets

Three core domains of development

• Physical/biological development: brain, hormones, perception, motor skills
• Cognitive development: language, knowledge and understanding, reasoning and problem-solving, cognitive processes
• Social and emotional: relationships, understanding the self and others, emotion regulation, friendships, socialisation and moral understanding

The body keeps growing. Size and shape changes mean the child has to continually recalibrate their actions and senses. There is increased myelination and synaptic pruning. Particularly prolonged development of frontal lobes.

Onset of language in early childhood. Language to communicate, vocab and grammar develop significantly. Logical thought, symbolic reasoning and abstract reasoning develop.

In infancy, babies are almost exclusively reliant on social relationships with their parents. In adolescence, social peer group becomes increasingly important and independent. Social groups become complex.

There are many methodological difficulties when researching children. Persuading a toddler to willfully take part in an experiment can be very difficult. There are also language limitations. Children do not necessarily understand all they're told. Lewis & Osborne (1990): in the Sally-Anne task, if the question is made temporally specific (where will sally look for it now?) then 3 year-olds pass.

Attention, hunger, and tiredness can all affect responses. Children make assumptions about what we want and may act in according ways, rather than behave in natural responses.

Margaret Donaldson (1974) argued that children do not understand the experimental situation in many of Piaget's tasks and may be mislead by the experimenter's actions and repeated questions. McGarrigle & Donaldson (1974) tackled the conservation task. They introduced the "naughty teddy" to make the transformation in the task. This helped improve younger children's performance. They concluded preoperational children can conserve number.

Memory limitations can also mask children's abilities.