2. Key Reading

2.1 Understanding childhood and child development

In order to work with children, it is important to understand what we mean by childhood. In fact, it is a more complex issue than is commonly recognised.

The understanding of childhood varies significantly around the world. No universal consensus can be found as to what children need for their optimum development, what environments best provide for those needs, and what form and level of protection is appropriate for children at a specific age. Indeed, there is no agreement on the nature of childhood, when children become adults, or the goals that families aspire for their children.

Marta Santos Pais

There is no universal definition of childhood. Yet many assumptions exist about what childhood is, how children develop, and the presumed capabilities and capacities of children. Traditional stage theories, which understood child development as a series of discrete stages each associated with an approximate age range, have tended to influence how we understand development through childhood. These theories, although now increasingly being challenged, continue to influence our thinking. There continue to be five significant assumptions about childhood deriving from these theories:

  • Child development is a universal process: All children develop along the same trajectory or path towards adulthood and implies that a set of ‘rules’ are followed throughout the process of child development. Differentiating factors such as cultural, temporal, contextual and individual are largely ignored.
  • Adulthood has normative status: Once a child reaches adulthood s/he has full human status. Until adulthood, the child is considered to be in a state of immaturity characterized by irrationality, incompetence, weakness, naivety, and innocence. In other words, everything a child does is basically a preparation for adulthood. Childhood is not valued for and of itself, only as a developmental process.
  • Goals of child development are universal: All cultures have the same ultimate goals for development. Yet in reality, different cultures have significantly different aspirations for their children, and these differences influence the goals for their development. For instance, in most Western societies, the ultimate goals for development include the attainment of personal, social, and political autonomy, independence and self-sufficiency, whereas in many other cultures, inter-dependence and integration are more highly valued. The goals of development also differ within community contexts and cultures, whereby education may be emphasized for a boy-child living in a middle class family, and marriage and employment may be considered to be of high priority for a girl-child from an impoverished circumstance, or one where girl education is not highly valued.
  • Deviations from the norm indicates risk for the child: There are assumptions about what constitutes normal behaviour and activity at each stage of development and any deviations from these normal behaviours are deemed to be potentially harmful for the child. These assumptions are largely drawn from a Western model of childhood, and fail to reflect the differences and realities of childhood experience in other cultural environments. It assumes, for example, that all forms of work are harmful for young children, thus effectively pathologising the many millions of children for whom work is a necessity, or indeed, recognising the potential benefits for children associated with work.
  • Children are passive players: Childhood is seen to be a process of acquisition of competencies and skills according to pre-determined biological or psychological forces. It fails to acknowledge the extent to which children have agency to influence their own lives and development, and can make an active contribution to their social environments.

Adapted from Lansdown, G. The Evolving Capacities of the Child, UNICEF, Florence, 2005, p 10-13, originally amended from Boyden, J., B. Ling and W. Myers. What Works for Working Children, Radda Barnen/UNICEF, Florence, 1998.

Many of these assumptions of childhood feed into a standard or universal model of childhood where:

“childhood is a period of time for nurturing, care, play and learning in the family and the school, and free from the demands of responsibility or employment. However, this is not the reality for many millions of children throughout the world.”

Lansdown, G. p. 10.

A growing critique of this universal, western-centric view of childhood and child development has evolved in recent years, replacing it with cultural theories which understand childhood as a cultural process, deeply rooted in the social, economic and culture contexts of the child and the various systems that influence and are influenced by the child’s life.

Woodhead M, Reconstructing developmental psychology: Some first steps, Children and Society, 1999, Vol 13, p3-19

Within these approaches, three key elements within children’s environments are seen to be influential to their development::

  • Context: the physical and social settings children inhabit - the family, peers, social patterns and the organization of their daily lives
  • Culture: the culturally regulated customs and child-rearing practices - arrangements for care and education, attitudes towards play, training and discipline
  • Social Constructions: the interpretation of childhood and development from the perspective of the child’s parents and other influential adults in their lives - goals and priorities for the development of children and views on how these can be achieved

Super C and Harkness S, Cultural perspectives on child development , in Cultural perspectives on child development, Wagner D and Stevenson H (eds) W H freeman, San Francisco, 1982, pp 172-198

An additional, critical factor contributing to the development of the child is the acknowledgement of children as active contributors in their own development and in the development of society. Children are not simply recipients of adult protection, but are social actors who demonstrate capacity to be involved. Children should be active participants and partners in actions and decisions affecting them and their lives.

The recognition that children are social actors cannot be understated: they must be involved.

Thus based on the above reflections, child development is:

  • Dynamic, Interrelated and continuous
  • Influenced by a wide variety of internal (physical, psychological, socio-cultural and spiritual) and external (family, peers, community, society, government, environment, and culture) factors and contexts
  • Highly dependent upon and influenced by the child’s individual capacities, context and culture, and his/her active involvement and partnership in decisions affecting his/her life
In Garbarino, J. (1999). Lost boys. (NY: Free Press), Garbarino indicates that psychological, social and spiritual anchors are essential to healthy development and overcoming adversity. Spiritual rights are explicitly mentioned in the CRC and include the right to freedom from discrimination in respect of status or beliefs; the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion.

2.2 Needs, Potentials, and Rights of Children