Erikson's Stages Of Development

Exemplification: Psychosexual Numerous children are being lured into the dangerous trap of being naive. Given their age group, the majority of kids are not properly taught the knowledge of human anatomy and how it is involved in sexual ways. Although debatable, many studies give scientific reasons for when and why parents should teach their kids about different things, including sexual topics, based off of stages of development. Not being taught soon enough is still leading to many issues with how children view sexually related concepts later in life and how mature they are with the topic. Parents should begin teaching their two-and-a-half to five year olds about sex in a way they can comprehend to better prepare them for the future. There
The stage parents would want to focus on with this topic is the preoperational stage which is happening with kids between the ages of two to seven. This is when kids start to play using symbolism and mentally represent events and objects (McLeod, “Jean Piaget.”). If parents were to start teaching at this stage, the child would be able to symbolize what they know and have that symbolization change as they grow and learn more. Erikson is another psychologist, but he studied psychosocial stages of toddlers and adolescents. In his stages, the one to focus on is Initiative vs. Guilt that happens at the age of three to five. This is when kids begin to be more assertive by playing games that give them initiative making them feel comfortable in their decisions. On the other hand, Erikson describes “if this tendency is [ended], either through criticism or control, children develop a sense of guilt” which is very important to differentiate since this is when the major thirst for knowledge grows (McLeod, “Erik Erikson.”). Thus, this is an excellent time to teach the young ones about what is right and wrong about sexual concepts. More similar to Erikson’s theories, Freud
Mrs. Talton is an individual with strong beliefs about this topic and she gave her insight on why toddlers should be introduced to the subject of the matter early. She stated, “I personally know someone who was not taught at a young age and was a victim of child molestation. The main reason being is that she didn’t know that what was going on was wrong, so now she has to live with that her entire life. If she had been taught earlier, that would have changed everything. That is one reason why I taught my daughter ever since she was three. Also, it leaves less room for kids to curiously play with themselves and ask embarrassing questions at inappropriate times” (Talton). When asked about maturity being an issue, Mrs. Talton responded, “Some kids already have sex and kids before their parents ever bring the subject up. If parents are the first to tell their toddlers about sex, then they can ensure that they treat it as a mature event and not some game to have fun, no matter how their child develops and matures" (Talton). Sadly, even with all this perfectly good evidence, not everyone