Character Development in Children

for a compromise, and situations in which you should be firm and never

give in. Important people skills develop at home while the child is communicating

with family members; remember, however, that children tend to copy behaviors.

How is a child’s character built up?

A child’s development process has various stages including turning

points and steady periods. In a steady period, changes don’t happen

immediately -- they accumulate until a sudden and dramatic change occurs.

At this moment, a child’s relationship with adults isn’t easy

because they start feeling differently and expect other people to treat

them in a different way. Preschoolers, in fact, experience two turning

points of character -- development at the age of one and another at the

age of two. The steady periods occur from birth to 12 months, from early

childhood to three, and from three to six.

Infancy (first year of life)

The first year of a child’s life is important because it’s

when his or her emotional traits are formed. In the first year of life,

an infant communicates emotionally with adults. Being dependent on them,

infants learn how to interact with adults and let their parents know what

they want and need. The attention and affection of parents and other family

members forms the basis of infants’ emotional development.

First-year crisis

The first-year crisis occurs because a one-year-old starts walking and

looks more like an adult. Second, an infant starts using speech; and third,

new character traits such as stubbornness appear, and a child can choose

to refuse or comply with authority. Feeling more independent, infants

may start opposing adults to get what they want -- they resort to crying,

being hysterical and refusing to do what they are asked to do. This sort

of behavior can become an issue if the parents’ reaction is inappropriate.

In this situation, parents should not go the extreme and shout, nor should

they comply with the child’s demands or totally ignore his or her

bad behavior. Parents should explain to their one-year-olds that there

are better ways to get what they want.

Early childhood (from one to three)

During this time, a child develops self-orientation, activity orientation,

and people orientation. If a child is self-oriented, the child’s

alert level is high because he or she focuses on his or her thoughts and

feelings. Such a child is usually prone to depression and petulant behavior,

which mostly depends on his or her physical or emotional condition. Self-oriented

children have issues communicating with others, because they take into

consideration their own personal needs and desires and often ignore other

people’s feelings. Self-oriented children are demanding and tend

to over-estimate their own abilities. It’s important to teach self-oriented

children to take others’ opinions and feelings into account.

If a child is activity oriented, his or her cognitive ability is high.

They are inquisitive and like making things out of Legos and Play-Doh,

modeling, and making new discoveries. Parents can encourage the development

of such children by offering them new activities.

People-oriented children try to meet other people’s needs, and

children of such orientation are always ready and eager to communicate

with others. It’s important to explain to these children that their

own needs are not the least important.

Self-oriented children find it more difficult to handle their failures,

while activity-oriented children can easily deal with difficulties.

The early childhood period marks an active development of intellectual

abilities. This stage is characterized by problem-solving through making

mistakes and accumulating experience. Children learn about the world and

the qualities and functions of objects. Observation skills also develop

during this time period, and as a result they copy adults. At the same

time, essential moral values are formed as well as communication skills.

Third year crisis

This first sign of this crisis is negativity. A child turns down all

suggestions made by adults even though deep inside he or she may agree

with them. This is how children learn to show their emotional qualities.

The second indication of this crisis is stubbornness, which differs

from persistence. Making up their minds, children stubbornly insist on

their original decisions even if they don’t want to act in accordance

with them. For example, if a child is offered something to eat and he

or she refuses to eat it, the three-year-old may stick to their original

decision even if he or she later changes his or her mind. This behavior

reveals a child’s unsteady but developing desire to be independent.

Preschool period (from three to six-seven)

Children learn about the world and indulge in new activities under adult

guidance. Role playing becomes important. While playing adult roles, children

adopt important behavior patterns and their moral qualities develop. The

rules of the games force children to control their behavior and encourage

the development of such qualities as patience and purposefulness. Games

shape intellectual qualities (observation, reasoning, logic) because knowledge