Toddlerhood Research Paper

Each stage of life consists of developmental tasks that are skills and competencies a person acquires. Toddlerhood is the third life stage lasting from 2-3 years old. The psychological experience of toddlerhood can be looked at though the major developmental tasks, which include locomotion, language and communication skills, fantasy play, and self-control. These tasks contribute to the child’s social group in which they live. With every stage comes a psychosocial crisis that arises as the person experiences some conflict between their skills and the expectations of their society. Locomotion plays the greatest role in the toddler’s psychosocial development. Locomotion is how the toddler experiences new ways of interacting with their environment and
It is the ability to control urges, direct action to a goal, express and stop the expression of emotions, and resist temptation. During toddlerhood, self-control develops in two ways: control of impulses and self-regulated goal attainment. They begin to modify their behavior so they do not cause distress to others. They become more conscious of how their actions affect the outside world. The second form of self-control has to do with the toddler’s feelings that they can direct their behavior to achieve an intended outcome with the behavior of others. The psychosocial crisis of toddlerhood is autonomy versus shame and doubt. In toddlerhood, children become aware of their sense of separateness from their parents. Autonomy, the ability to form actions independently, is the positive outcome of the psychosocial crisis of toddlerhood. Examples of autonomy include dressing and feeding oneself, playing alone or with a group, and sleeping apart from parents. If the child fails to emerge from toddlerhood with a sense of mastery, they can develop a sense of shame and doubt. One of the earliest experience of shame a child can experience is toilet