Am i a little girl or am i a little boy? Gender development.
September 12th 2007 06:23
Children as young as 18 months of age develop a preference to play with gender stereotype toys.
The so-called preference for gender stereotype toys does not mean at this point any awareness in the association with the toys and gender categories.
For example, a little boy around three or four years old knows who is a boy or a girl, a mum or a dad but does not yet understand the full concept of it.
Yes, a tendency to play with gender stereotype toys appears early and naturally, but the meaning of genders will not appear until later when they enter elementary school. It is around seven years of age, when the child reaches gender constancy which is the understanding of one’s gender consistency.
From birth, the first years of a child are all about observation. They copy first of all their parents, and get later strongly influenced by peers and teachers.
Several studies have shown distinct behaviour differences among boys and girls, mainly coming naturally due to hormonal differences, testosterone versus estrogens, and the influential interaction with peers. Boys are more active than girls, and their games also more aggressive, therefore both genders will naturally choose to stick with their own group which seems more appropriate to their social development.
In a few words, one can say that children develop a gender preference early in life, due to the interaction of biological influences and environment observations.
It is an influence that builds slowly until elementary school to the full concept of what it is to be a girl or a boy.
The nature-nurture debate today has come to the new understanding that it works together, and both are essential to the full development of a child.
“It is a child interpretation of experience that shapes his or her development.” (Kail, Robert V. Children and their development. 4th edition)
By that it is meant that despite all external stimuli offered to a child, the core of itself, the essence of this little person will define its personality and choose what it is right for “him or her”.
Finally, as Anne Campbell concluded in the book “the social child” (1998), it is the “genes and environment simultaneously” that “set the child on a sex typed trajectory of development”.
Children, by three years of age, develop an “objective self-awareness and a formal knowledge of their own and other’s gender.”
But the firm belief of what it means to be a boy or a girl will gradually develop until children reach elementary school, by the age of seven.
The so-called preference for gender stereotype toys does not mean at this point any awareness in the association with the toys and gender categories.
For example, a little boy around three or four years old knows who is a boy or a girl, a mum or a dad but does not yet understand the full concept of it.
Yes, a tendency to play with gender stereotype toys appears early and naturally, but the meaning of genders will not appear until later when they enter elementary school. It is around seven years of age, when the child reaches gender constancy which is the understanding of one’s gender consistency.
Several studies have shown distinct behaviour differences among boys and girls, mainly coming naturally due to hormonal differences, testosterone versus estrogens, and the influential interaction with peers. Boys are more active than girls, and their games also more aggressive, therefore both genders will naturally choose to stick with their own group which seems more appropriate to their social development.
In a few words, one can say that children develop a gender preference early in life, due to the interaction of biological influences and environment observations.
It is an influence that builds slowly until elementary school to the full concept of what it is to be a girl or a boy.
The nature-nurture debate today has come to the new understanding that it works together, and both are essential to the full development of a child.
“It is a child interpretation of experience that shapes his or her development.” (Kail, Robert V. Children and their development. 4th edition)
Finally, as Anne Campbell concluded in the book “the social child” (1998), it is the “genes and environment simultaneously” that “set the child on a sex typed trajectory of development”.
Children, by three years of age, develop an “objective self-awareness and a formal knowledge of their own and other’s gender.”
But the firm belief of what it means to be a boy or a girl will gradually develop until children reach elementary school, by the age of seven.
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