Childhood : Childhood And Adult Life

There are various discourses of childhood that help us understand how childhood is viewed and how children themselves are seen. It is important to also look outside the system world and look towards the life worlds as it gives a more realistic view of various childhoods and shows how diverse the concept of childhood is because children do not share the same experiences. Regardless if you are looking at the system or life world the notions of rights, opportunities and capabilities are often discussed. These notions aids us in understanding childhood, however they can often obstruct us as well.

Childhood itself is a slightly ambiguous term, and is not a fixed definite period of life. The book “AS level sociology” written by Rob webb, Hal Westergaard, Kieth Trobe and Liz Steel defines childhood as “ a socially defined age status” going on to say that there are major differences in how childhood is defined, both historically, and culturally, similarly, Stephen Wagg says of childhood;

1.1 – Explain the factors that need to be taken into account when assessing development

When one compares the structure of the adult brain and the teenage brain, there will be several differences between the two. Adults have stronger connections from one nerve cell to another, and they all have essential communication skills. However, teenagers have more synapses and have weaker nerve connections. Also, their frontal lobes aren 't fully developed. This causes adolescence to have impulsive behavior and they typically do not recognize consequences in a situation. In the early twenties the brain becomes fully developed, so people are very good at making decision and they are able to think abstractly. There are many factors that contribute to the construction of the brain; some things help the brain develop normally, other things interrupt the process. There is a substantial amount of distinctions between the adult brain and the adolescent brain, and these includes behavioral and structural differences.

The adolescent individuals begin to reach sexual maturity and established their identity as an adult. This period marks the transition in which individuals think and reason. They also start to encounter conflicts between their family and their peers.

“Some day you will be old enough to start reading fairytales again.” -C.S. Lewis. We all have had experiences that bring about growth and maturity; the clear line that separates us from childhood to adulthood. The shift from childhood to adulthood happened for me when I started having my own opinions and my own outlook on life. You can always be traced back into your life, in the events that shaped your perspective of the world.

The brain's white matter, prefrontal cortext responds to judgment and impulse control is different in adolescent than adult. During adolescent, teenagers can easily be more frustrated and upset for no reason, while the adult are calmer with the emotion. This also true because when I was in my teenage years, if things wasn't going according to what I want, I would be upset with everything around me.

Childhood is usually understood as a set of experiences and behaviours, gained in the early stages of the human existence, considered as the preparation for the adult world. However, the history of childhood is a very complex topic and it has become a very influential area of study in recent years. In 1962, the ‘Centuries of Childhood’ by Philippe Ariés introduced the idea that childhood was a new creation developed in recent centuries and as a concept it was believed to be nonexistent before the seventeenth century. This concept means that there was no awareness of the process of childhood. In several studies of the medieval period, Ariés noticed that childhood was not acknowledged or even attempted to be portrayed during this period. For

Being an adult as a certain glamour to it, you are independent and can do whatever you want or so we think. Once we become adults we feel as though we have lots of responsibilities and we find out there are limitations, then being a carefree kid seems better. Throughout life we can’t really find an age that seems to satisfy us. Younger kids want to go to school like the older ones. The older children and teenagers either want to be younger so that they have less rules or be older so that they can do what they want. Adults and the elderly want to be young again because of the stress free life they once had. All of us want something we once had or something that we will have, but we feel as though it isn’t coming fast

So what separates a child from an adult? There are the obvious differences such as physical stature but Duke Learning Universities Doctor Carrie Muh says that the difference lies in the brain. “The brain does not reach its full development until the age of 25, that is when the frontal lobe is fully developed.” The ever advancing medical world is home to groundbreaking technology such as Magnetic Resonance Imaging, or MRI machines. With this doctors are able to get a view of what is going on in someones head. In 2008 Harvard Medical School did a study on teens to show how their brain functions differently than an adult brain. Harvard Medical professor of neurology Dr. Francis E. Jenson says that the adolescent brain is “A paradoxical time of

As you get older, you begin to understand the importance or lack thereof of things. When you are an adolescent, you blow things way out of proportion. Kids act as though not being invited to the most recent birthday party is the most important thing. When you are older you realize that it is more important to be financially secure, have a home and be safe. You also realize that you don't need the latest model of the iPhone, or other technological device as long as the necessary items you have work.

Adolescents try to figure out who they are in order to form a basic identity that they will build on throughout their life; whereas, older adults acquire a lifetime of self-knowledge, which leads to a more secure and complex understanding of themselves than at earlier ages.

As I matured, I began to have more respect for myself and looked at life from a different perspective.

Adults usually make most of the decisions for young children, but adolescents must make many decisions on their own. For example, when I was a child, my mother would choose what I would wear for school and what was in my lunch box. But now, I have to choose what I will wear, what I will eat, what kind of job I want to have and many more different decisions.

As a life is lived, a person will experience two stages in their life and that is childhood and adulthood. A person’s childhood is filled with joy, toys, and laughter. You can think of your childhood as the golden years of your life because that is when you discover your personality. In elementary school, we were allowed to take naps and have recess every day. When we were kids, we could not wait to grow up to be adults because we thought it was way cooler. We thought since we got told “no” that being an adult was going to be better. As we reach the stage of adulthood, we find that being an adult is not so great after all. Being an adult means bills, a job, and no more naps. The childhood stage is better than the adulthood stage because you do not have to worry about debt, you get to take naps, and you do not have to work to support yourself.