To what extent does reading children’s literature drive a child’s development as well as affect parent/child power structure?
In an ever increasing technological and digital age, children are not being exposed to books and literature more often except while in schools. When children are not exposed to literature as often in the critical period, more specifically the preoperational stage, of their development, it will begin to affect their social relationships and they will try to subvert their parent’s power. This is due to the fact of not being able to understand why parents act the way they do. As early as infancy, children have a basic, emerging sense of “Self.” A child’s comprehension of their sense of “Self” can be defined as “a conceptual …show more content…
There are theories on children’s development including that of the famous pediatric psychologist, Jean Piaget. Piaget proposed the theory of children’s development to have 4 concrete stages; these stages include that of the sensorimotor stage (Birth to 2 years old); the preoperational stage (2 to 7 years old); the concrete operational stage (7 to 11 years old); and finally, the formal operational stage (11 years and older) (McLeod 30). The preoperational stage of development will be focused on for the purpose of this argument.The preoperational is usually characterized by children playing pretend, making use of symbols to understand their environment, as well as egocentricity (McLeod 5-10). The preoperational stage can be seen in most children’s literature allowing a child to relate to a character better, for example, in Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking-Glass, Alice, the main character, in Chapter 1 plays pretend as a parent to the black cat and also constantly pleads to her family “Let’s pretend (2).” The most identifiable characteristic of the preoperational stage, egocentricity, is defined as a child not being able to “take someone else’s point of view” (Kalyan-Masih 35). It is imperative that children’s literature is introduced and read at the preoperational stage to begin to help accelerate the amelioration of egocentricity in children. Children’s literature introduces the ideas of other character’s feelings; therefore, children are being exposed to such concepts will begin to adjust their selfish viewpoints to account for other people’s outlook on different items. To exemplify, in books such as Heather has Two Mommies by Leslea Newman and Laura Cornell, presents more controversial issues, such as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) parenting, to probe a more open-minded child early on in the development process. Therefore, this allows children to become more empathetic and open individuals
In an ever increasing technological and digital age, children are not being exposed to books and literature more often except while in schools. When children are not exposed to literature as often in the critical period, more specifically the preoperational stage, of their development, it will begin to affect their social relationships and they will try to subvert their parent’s power. This is due to the fact of not being able to understand why parents act the way they do. As early as infancy, children have a basic, emerging sense of “Self.” A child’s comprehension of their sense of “Self” can be defined as “a conceptual …show more content…
There are theories on children’s development including that of the famous pediatric psychologist, Jean Piaget. Piaget proposed the theory of children’s development to have 4 concrete stages; these stages include that of the sensorimotor stage (Birth to 2 years old); the preoperational stage (2 to 7 years old); the concrete operational stage (7 to 11 years old); and finally, the formal operational stage (11 years and older) (McLeod 30). The preoperational stage of development will be focused on for the purpose of this argument.The preoperational is usually characterized by children playing pretend, making use of symbols to understand their environment, as well as egocentricity (McLeod 5-10). The preoperational stage can be seen in most children’s literature allowing a child to relate to a character better, for example, in Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking-Glass, Alice, the main character, in Chapter 1 plays pretend as a parent to the black cat and also constantly pleads to her family “Let’s pretend (2).” The most identifiable characteristic of the preoperational stage, egocentricity, is defined as a child not being able to “take someone else’s point of view” (Kalyan-Masih 35). It is imperative that children’s literature is introduced and read at the preoperational stage to begin to help accelerate the amelioration of egocentricity in children. Children’s literature introduces the ideas of other character’s feelings; therefore, children are being exposed to such concepts will begin to adjust their selfish viewpoints to account for other people’s outlook on different items. To exemplify, in books such as Heather has Two Mommies by Leslea Newman and Laura Cornell, presents more controversial issues, such as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) parenting, to probe a more open-minded child early on in the development process. Therefore, this allows children to become more empathetic and open individuals