Childhood Since children are able to talk quite fluently by the time they are years old, we need not rely only on self-recognition to know young children’s self- understanding. We can use verbal means by involving them in conversations about themselves. Researchers have found that the following are the five main characteristics of young children’s understanding of themselves. .
They use physical descriptions of their self or material possessions to differentiate themselves from others – they may use descriptive words like ‘tall’, or ‘big’ or refer to the clothes they wear or the toys or objects they have. Their self-descriptions are in absolute terms – this means they do not see themselves in comparison with others. To give an example, instead of saying, “I am taller than Kiran”, the child will say, “I am tall.” . They describe themselves in terms of things they can do .
For example, in terms of their play activities – “I can ride a cycle”; “I can make a house”; “I can count”. Thus, their self understanding contains active descriptions of themselves. . Their self descriptions are in concrete terms – i.e., they define themselves in terms of things they can do or what is visible to them – “I have a television.” .
They often overestimate themselves . Thus, a child may say, “I am never scared” or “I know all the poems”, but may not remember them completely. . Young children are also unable to recognise that they can possess different attributes – that they can be ‘good’ and ‘bad’, ‘mean’ and ‘nice’ at different points in time.
The following is a brief interaction between an adult and Radha, a girl aged years months, which reveals the child’s perception of herself. The interaction is presented in the form of questions asked and the answers given by the child.