Childhood development: research overview and analysis

Early Childhood

The Stages of Childhood Development

Toddlerhood/Early Childhood:

As a child, I may have taken the implications of walking through a toy store for granted. Instead, I would largely be struck by the "Mommy, I want it" condition that is a common affliction for young children. My observations today are quite different as a I wander through the toy-store and consider the implications of the toys lining the shelves. To a certain extent, I am relieved to find that many of the classic toys that I enjoyed as a child are still omnipresent.

The toys that were so important to me while growing up appear still to be in heavily circulation. Prominent among these are building blocks, LEGOs, train sets and Play-Doh. These examples would strike me because of the positive goals that they seem to represent for the developing intellect. Namely, these toys seem to present no immediately apparent and specific path of usage. Instead, each represents the opportunity for the child to create, to dismantle, to event, to alter and to ultimately employ these toys to whatever ends the child can imagine. In this regard, such toys seem to encourage play without limitations as well as to incline children to think outside of the traditional rules and structures which govern formal learning. In many ways, such toys reflect the array of creative possibilities before the child. Their continued popularity seems to suggests that parents continue to approve of these toys, that children continue to gain positive developmental tools from these toys and that there is some connection between said toys and the child's aptitude for problem-solving, ingenuity and the achievement of balance between the rules governing the toy's workability (i.e. The balance of blocks, the interlocking of LEGOs, etc.) and the relative freedom otherwise afforded by the toy in question.

This is quite an important function, conforming with Erikson's developmental theories suggesting early childhood to be a time for recognizing rule formation. Accordingly, Erikson would express the view that "during this stage we learn to master skills for ourselves. Not only do we learn to walk, talk and feed ourselves, we are learning finer motor development as well as the much appreciated toilet training. Here we have the opportunity to build self-esteem and autonomy as we gain more control over our bodies and acquire new skills, learning right from wrong." (Harder, 1)

This differs, however, from a very significant portion of the toys found in a store which instead do appear to reflect certain usage limitations and to fulfill certain economic, cultural and sociological agenda. Perhaps most significantly among the items which bear this impact are those which are highly gender-loaded toys. A reflection of the history of toy-making and marketing, toys continue to be divided into the categories of 'dolls' and 'action figures,' with the most significant difference being the respective gender stereotypes fulfilled by each. Indeed, dolls and action figures appear designed with the agenda of reinforcing certain gender norms for their users such that children will ultimately come to affiliate more directly with certain gender assumptions.

Dolls, for instance, tend to appear in colors such as pink and purple. Moroever, they perform functions that allow young girls to behave in ways that are indicative of female gender assumptions. Dolls will invite girls to change their clothes, apply imaginary makeup or even engage in domestic activities. These features reflect something of a training in many of the gender roles which structure our society such as an affinity for fashion and a tendency toward the performance of household responsibilities. By contrast, action figures will engage in combat, tote weaponry and display muscular physiques all of which impose certain gender expectations upon the young boy. In this regard, there is a clear sociological agenda which initiates with the expectation that boys will be attracted to certain features in their toys and that girls will be attracted to certain other, divergent features.

Ultimately, this denotes that it will fall upon the shopping parent to determine which type of toy is more valuable to his or her child. To my perspective, those toys which lack an apparent sociocultural agenda do so because they are inherently flexible to the innumerable needs and ambitions of the developing child.

Adolescence:

Paper Clips (2004) is a compelling documentary in which the children of an elementary school in Whitwell, Tennessee have been engaged in a project designed to better conceptualize and put into perspective the enormity and horrors of the Holocaust. The class would center on teaching the students tolerance, and would prove directly well-suited to the adolescent stage experienced by most of the students who involved themselves.

Indeed, it is during this phase of middle childhood that we begin to develop an understanding of moral schemes as something more complex than simply that which is defined by consequences. This conforms with Piaget's idea about moral growth as it coincides with the stages of development. Here, our research notes that at around "10 or 11 years -- children's moral thinking undergoes other shifts. In particular, younger children base their moral judgments more on consequences, whereas older children base their judgments on intentions. When, for example, the young child hears about one boy who broke 15 cups trying to help his mother and another boy who broke only one cup trying to steal cookies, the young child thinks that the first boy did worse. The child primarily considers the amount of damage -- the consequences -- whereas the older child is more likely to judge wrongness in terms of the motives underlying the act." (Crain, 120)

Accordingly, this is a point in individual personal development in which we are able to observe the intrinsic value of actions and decisions rather than simply viewing them in terms of personal repercussions. This leads into a greater sense of the world as separate from ourselves. In the segue into adolescence, we begin to view ego orientation separately from society, ethical coding and the formation of relationships both formal and information.