Activity . Socio-emotional Development : The important dimensions of children’s socio- emotional development are the self , gender and moral development. During the early years of childhood, some important developments in the self take place. The child due to socialisation has developed a sense of who s/he is and whom s/he wants to be identified with.
The developing sense of independence makes children do things in their own way. According to Erikson, the way parents respond to their self-initiated activities leads to developing a sense of initiative or sense of guilt. For example, giving freedom and opportunities for play like cycling, running, skating, etc. and answering children’s questions will create a sense of support for the initiative taken.
In contrast, if they are made to feel that their questions are useless, and games played by them are stupid, the children are likely to develop feelings of guilt over self-initiated activities, which may persist through the children’s later life also. Self- understanding in early childhood is limited to defining oneself through physical characteristics: I am tall, she has black hair, I am a girl, etc. During middle and late childhood, the child is likely to define oneself through internal characteristics such as, “I am smart and I am popular” or “I feel proud when teachers assign me responsibility in school”. In addition to defining oneself through psychological characteristics, children’s self- descriptions also include social aspects of self, Is chess a man’s game or woman’s game or both?
Is baking a woman’s activity or a man’s activity? What about driving, debating, and experimenting in a physics laboratory? Or consider some of the products sold on T.V. for young men and young women?
What do they tell about how girls and boys should be? Psychologists have meticulously researched on whether sex differences exist. Research shows that males have been consistently found to be more aggressive than females. Men perform better than women on tests of sit-ups, short-run speeds and long jumps.
Women show better, fine eye-hand coordination than men do, and their joints and limbs are more flexible than men’s. What do you think is the origin of these differences? Are these essential, or in other words, are women born with certain ‘feminine’ traits, and men with certain ‘masculine’ traits? Or are these differences the creation of the world we live in?
The most powerful roles into which people are socialised are gender roles. They specify the range of behaviours which are considered appropriate for males or females. While sex refers to the biological dimension of being male or female, gender refers to the social dimension of being male or female. There are several aspects of gender.
Among these, important ones are gender identity of male or female, which most children begin to acquire by the time they are about years old and can accurately label themselves as boys and girls. As they grow, preferences can be evidenced in their toys and play. A gender role is a set of expectations that prescribes how females and males should think, act and feel. Parents are important influences on gender socialisation especially in the early years .