Self Awareness In Children

I remember when I was at the mall with my sister and my nephew, who was 2 years of age at the time. We were walking around, window shopping then all of a sudden my nephew started booking it down the mall…as if he was trying to run away from us. I’m sure this sounds similar to those parents who have experienced this type of situation. Running down the mall chasing after a young one is more difficult than it seems, especially trying to dodge the adults who are in the way. When we finally got a hold of my nephew (after running which felt like 5 kilometers), I remember my sister saying “got to love the terrible two’s”. Many parents complain about their children around the age of 2, mostly due to their mood changes, temper tantrums, stubbornness, …show more content…
During these changes the toddler is developing greater self-awareness, they are gaining a sense of who they are. For example, if you were to place a mark on the nose of a child less than 18 month old and place them in front of a mirror, nothing would happen because the child is unaware of himself/herself. However, the response changes as the child is older. If you do the exact same experiment with a child who is 18 months or older, the child would recognize themselves in the mirror and self-consciously touch his/her nose (Holinger, 2012). Due to these newly developed cognitive capacities, the child is also experiencing more emotions. This is a positive aspect of the development of self-awareness because the toddler is experiencing new feelings, desires and interests, which overall excite parents (The Successful Parent, 2001). There is a need to explore the world, be independent, to express pleasure in these newly developed capacities and interactions (The Successful Parent, 2001). However, the newly developed self-awareness can pose negative aspects on this development. This is where we see characteristics of anger and frustration. For instance when your toddler has become interested with touching the outlet plugs, as a parent you would rush to move the toddler so they wouldn’t get hurt. Prior to this, the child would cry and scream after being moved to a safer area. Aggression is a basic task in children’s development (Leach, 2014). Aggression can be characterized in toddlers as temper tantrums, mood changes, and stubbornness. Your child is now becoming more interested with the world around them, they display increased curiosity in exploring, touching and experimenting however parents anxiety levels are increased during these times when it comes to safety (Holinger,