The development of emotion and personality

During the first six months, the child lives primarily with his parents. After this period, he becomes aware of a certain autonomy and opens to the world. Until the age of 3 years, the child demonstrates an attitude of opposition. This is the crisis of three years against which you will need to arm yourself with patience and firmness.

Early childhood from birth to 3 years. This period determines the subsequent development of personality. During the first years of his life, the child will develop his first relationship "object-", that is to say relations that unite as a subject in everything other than himself.

Two distinct phases

In this regard, Spitz described two phases:
The pre-object (from birth to the end of the second month) is represented by the perfect symbiosis in which the infant lives with his mother. It is not yet individualized but still essentially perceived and experienced in its functional dimension: it is the mother nourishing. That's why we talk about the pre-object.



The object-stage begins around three months and is the period of differentiation of the maternal object. The mother represents the first child for the "purpose" and thus symbolizes the outside world. The infant begins to smile in response to the perception of the mother's face. Between 6 and 8 months, he begins to perceive any manifestation of life and, for Piaget, the perception of "movement" is the first of these events.

During this period, the baby's activity is essentially playful. On the psychic level, the period extending from birth to three years is called pregenital. It includes an oral stage, which lasts until the end of the first year, then an anal stage and finally a stage urethral. This represents a shift in the erogenous zone. The lower holes in turn become sources of pleasure and sphincter control imposed by parents enhances the quality of this pleasure.

The complex organization of these stages leads gradually towards the end of infancy, the distinction of a "me" different from the surrounding world. To 18 months, the child recognizes his face in the mirror: it is the appearance of self-awareness. 2 to 3 years, the child realizes that his mother is not his own, and it forms a pair with the father: this is the age of the "Oedipus complex".

Middle childhood (3-6 years)

This period led to the discovery of external reality and the differentiation of "me" translates to three years by a crisis of independence. The child does the opposite of what is asked, when the screaming contradiction, wants to dress and eat alone: the child becomes aware of his individuality. The crisis of three years and its avatars is one of the favorite subjects of child specialists.