Explain How Childhood Shapes Character

There is little evidence of what it was really like in the past so it is difficult for a lot of people to re-construct the life of a child, however from what I have researched, and in my own opinion I am going to summarise the historical changes in childhood experience and relate these changes to childhood development and rights.

2.1 Explain how children and young people’s development is influenced by a range of personal factors

Childhood is a biological and temporal period: In Ailwood, Boyd & Theobald (2016) states childhood is a phase of the dependence of basic needs as well as a period of biological growth. Age also has a factor in the view of childhood as Lassonde (cited in Ailwood, Boyd & Theobald 2016, p. 36) states age as ‘an important framework for assessing the capacities, rights, and obligations of children’. Historically childhood, as considered from birth to five years as children were considered not to have contributed to the ‘adult world’ (Ailwood, Boyd & Theobald

Adolescence is moving from childhood to adult. This adolescent year brings many changes, not only physically but also mentally, emotionally and socially (Feldman, 2006). My adolescence was a period in which I gained maturity due to the biological changes associated with puberty. I became independent from my family and developed more perspective since then. I started thinking more about my future goals. I was also trying to understand more of who I was as an adult. In Piaget’s cognitive developmental theory young people start to think abstractly and hypothetically in the formal operation stage (Berk, 2007). Therefore, this major cognitive development may have contributed to the exploration or search for my individual identity.

This experience led me to carry out several ventures. One of my first ventures was helping in food bank where I helped to pack food and transport it to several organizations and people in need. was hard to balance my school work with volunteering since I had to go in the evenings, but I developed the grit and passion to work hard! I started feeling a sense of accomplishment and gained responsibility.

One of the main features of childhood studies is the idea that childhood is socially constructed. This means that not all childhoods are the same and that it may differ depending on the time in which it is taking place, as well as the social environment or the place that it is taking place. This can be seen at the Museum of Childhood, and how different times have shown changes in the way children act, play, dress, or ultimately are treated in society. Additionally it draws on key differences in the human societies affecting different childhoods in any given period or place, and can examine how the childhood in that given period is constructed. Furthermore a social constructionist looks at the consequences of any given factor and the impact it has on children.

Our childhood plays a significant role in defining the kind of person that we become and the type of life that we live.

2.1. Explain how children and young people’s development is influenced by a range of personal factors

From this lesson, I would like to know the meaning of social construction of childhood. I am very familiar with the history of psychology and children’s literature. My grandmother used to live with us when I was a young, and she told me many stories of the past. For this reason, I am able to link the materials I study to the real world. The social construction of childhood is somehow new to me. Especially the way Postman (1999) expresses social construction of childhood. For example, he stated, “In the twentieth century, childhood began to unravel, and by the twenty-first, may be lost altogether- unless there is some serious interest in retaining it”. (p. 116). This lesson inspired me to express my point of view of social construction of

For my essay I decided to interview my mother. I know most of her story starting from my brothers birth. But i had never know much about her childhood. My mom was surprised when I started asking questions and I happy to learn more about my mother. I will focus this essay manly about when she was a child until teenager. While doing the interview I learned many thing and am now grateful for having the opportunity of writing this essay. I started by asking her when she was born and everything else sparked from their.

The theme of the importance of childhood in the shape of motivations and future character

Using Peekay's experiences in The Power of One, Peekay’s definition of childhood translates as, the ability to generate goals for oneself, while accomplishing them with the assistance of mentors and role models.

However, there are some who dread their past. Childhood can be seen by some as memories they want to forget. These differences in pasts can shape how people grow up to become the person they are in their adult life. This is a popular theme in writing as well. For example, The Kite Runner uses childhood to depict how different people grow up to be.

Childhood has its own ways of seeing, thinking, and feeling which are proper to it/ child’s mind considered as a blank state to be inscribed by experience: the infant is often compared to a ‘white paper’ to be written over or to a plastic substance (wax) to be molded

Childhood as disappearing/not disappearing will be discussed within this essay. There is no universal definition for childhood however in the western culture childhood is a period of dependency, characterised by learning the norms and values of society, innocence and freedom from responsibilities. Sociologists such as Postman and Jenks would argue that childhood is disappearing however Opie and Opie and Palmer would contradict this.