Talk:Childhood/Archive 1

Oscar Wilde
Why is Oscar Wilde cited as the source for Jesus Christ?
 * Sign your name, find a better source. Read his work. 128.208.1.131 05:24, 9 December 2006 (UTC)

definition for childhood
We should use this as the definition for childhood: Childhood is the age span ranging from birth to adolescence. --Nitsirk 23:28, 11 October 2007 (UTC)

Technically, it ranges from birth to adulthood. A 5 year old is a child, and so is a 16 year old. Early Childhood ranges from birth to adolescence and Late childhood ranges from adolescence to adulthood. Childhood is a long phase. In my opinion, childhood is the most fun phase in one's life. But, heck. What do I know, I'm only 14. But being an adult doesn't sound so fun to me except the fact that I can be as silly as I want and get away with it. That's why I'm planning on making retarded comedies when I grow up. --Mr. Comedian 20:22, 17 October 2007 (UTC)

what the heck?
Between toddlerhood and youth. toddlerhood and youth are both stages of childhood. But I will not make any edits unless I get some more opinoins. This way there is no edit war. I'm not going to make the same mistake I did with Preteen. So, Come on. I would really like for everyone to show me some opinions, but fist here is mine. This is a tricky business. Keep in mind that wikipedia is a tertiary source. That means that one should look at what reputable sources say childhood is, and then note them. Of course the sources are going to disagree, and eventually that should be reflected in this article. Someday when I have time... But two or three editors can't decide if childhood ends at 14, 15, 18, or 21. I guess I mean to say that if any of you have time to research this, that would be great! Anthony Krupp 19:58, 9 November 2007 (UTC)
 * Childhood is the human growth that takes place between birth and maturity. Or at least between birth and late youth. I can understand a person in there late teens as not being a child, but of those in there early teens, like 13-15. Are definatly children. --Mr. Comedian 13:44, 9 November 2007 (UTC)
 * I'm not so sure about 15. Though I would put 14. Anyway, I changed the definition back to what it was before. Saying that childhood is the stage between toddlerhood and youth immediately sounded off when I first saw it changed to that two days ago, but I didn't act then. I mean, the word Youth could apply and does apply to 24-year-olds as well, and other 20-somethings and early 30-somethings, so using the word Youth was off. Flyer22 19:04, 9 November 2007 (UTC)
 * I wouldn't say that it's still childhood at 16 to 18 and higher. A 21-year-old may still, according to some research, be an adolescent, but we certainly don't call 21-year-olds children. I don't have time to focus on this article right now. But, yes, we need to all come together to make this the best article that it can be. Flyer22 20:17, 9 November 2007 (UTC)
 * It depends if the definition is medical, psychological, or legal (according to which "children" can be quite old). That's one of the lacks of this article. And the main thing is that one has to, I think, keep away from what "I" would say or even what "we" would say. Who do you mean by "we"? It's safer to look for secondary sources and report what they say. I suspect the great difficulty of writing well about this might be the reason the article's in such poor shape now. In any case, I'll look forward to at least watching this article and perhaps responding as it gets edited. Best, Anthony Krupp 22:20, 9 November 2007 (UTC)
 * Yes, I completely get what you mean. The whole psychological, chronological, biological issue is what I touched on when editing the Child article. And that article needs to be expanded, I feel. I mean, it certainly can be expanded. Anyway, yes, I'll take part in the discussion here concerning this article on childhood when I can, on how to improve this article. Flyer22 23:03, 9 November 2007 (UTC)

I have plenty of time to get the info, it's saturday. I'll search some online dictionarys for childhood. And I'll search the 3 that are in my house. --Mr. Comedian 18:03, 10 November 2007 (UTC)

Okay, dictionary.com is pretty much saying that it takes place from infancy to puberty.--Mr. Comedian 18:06, 10 November 2007 (UTC) So is Wiktionary--Mr. Comedian 18:07, 10 November 2007 (UTC) The Random House College dictionary says that it is the state of being a child, so i checked there definition of child and it said pretty much a baby or an infant. Which i wouldn't put that on this page. I'll go check some more--Mr. Comedian 18:11, 10 November 2007 (UTC)The free dictionary/thesauraus is also saying from birth to puberty. This may just be the definition people, but we can't be too sure.--Mr. Comedian 20:54, 10 November 2007 (UTC)
 * Maybe we should just leave it. My definition: the physically and social growth in humans between birth and maturity. Others define it between infancy and puberty. Others for some strange reason say it's between toddlerhood and adolescence. But who am I to judge.--Mr. Comedian 20:59, 10 November 2007 (UTC)
 * Between toddlerhood and adolescence? No, no. Most sources state it as being between birth and puberty. Because, as I discussed with you before, a child, as the Child article states, is primarily a boy or girl who has not reached puberty. This is also why we see television commercials, when describing youth, saying the words "children and adolescents"...because when most people think of a child, they don't think of a mid-to-late adolescent (certainly not a late adolescent). It is specified as to what type of youth they are talking about because it is necessary. Psychologically, a child is not seen to be the same as an adolescent. However, as mentioned above in this section, society (which includes psychology as well) doesn't just define a child by biology, considering some youth go through puberty before others and are indeed still mentally children. Anyway, I'll see about re-wording the lead (introduction of this article) later. For now, I'm agreeing with you to leave it as it is. Flyer22 21:21, 10 November 2007 (UTC)

Ok. when I said that some define it as between toddlerhood and adolescence I meant whoever edited it this page to that. Most searches I looked up said birth to puberty. L8r.--Mr. Comedian 01:00, 11 November 2007 (UTC)
 * Oh, I know, Mr. Comedian. I figured that's what you meant. Flyer22 03:18, 11 November 2007 (UTC)
 * I think we need to find better references than dictionary.com or blogs. Sorry to just complain without doing it myself, but at the moment, I don't have the time. BEst, Anthony Krupp (talk) 13:39, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

Childhood is not defenetive, we can discribe it
There are also children reading this. Adults know so well (everything, but try to write to a child..there are many children also in Europe who doesnt know  what childhood could be, what it means.. Kesaloma (talk) 10:38, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

Merger proposal
Should Childhood and migration be merged into this article? -- brew crewer  (yada, yada) 22:21, 18 December 2007 (UTC)
 * Sure, sounds good.Anthony Krupp (talk) 11:38, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

No, I don't think so - it focuses on migration more than on childhood as such JakobaEng (talk) 17:14, 5 January 2008 (UTC)


 * Maybe childhood and migration should be merged into immigration. As it stands, it is primarily a summary of a single source. --Jcbutler (talk) 21:38, 1 December 2008 (UTC)

Purging and merging either way is advisable. forestPIG(grunt) 18:02, 2 December 2008 (UTC)
 * It would be better to merge with immigration, not here. -- Ikzing (talk) 04:17, 2 November 2009 (UTC)
 * I've redirected the page to human migration since it lacked references and, as a result, there wasn't much to merge. Cordless Larry (talk) 19:35, 5 September 2010 (UTC)

History of Childhood article?
This article says almost nothing about Childhood as such. It says something, rather eclectically, about the history of childhood. I undertake to expand the 'History of Childhood' section (this is my area of academic expertise) unless there are serious objections. But interested contributors please comment on whether there should be separate 'Childhood' and 'History of Childhood' articles. The first could deal with such issues as definitions, law and attitudes in the media and could connect to those existing pages such as Child Development, Child Psychology and on the Child.--Sabrebd (talk) 13:14, 5 January 2009 (UTC)
 * The childhood pages do seem to be in a bit of disarray, and the arrangement should be worked out before ploughing in too much (which doesn't seem to be a problem I've noticed). Childhood should probably be the umbrella article which should include history of childhood with summarized sections for Child development, Child psychology, Child development stages (Toddler, Early childhood, Preadolescent), Childhood Education (to include Early Childhood Education). If the History of Childhood is long enough, make a new page with a summary here. There is an overwhelming number of other child-related articles plus this List of child-related topics, and I'm not sure which few will be appropriate to include on this page. Perhaps that list's framework would be a good guide for the development of this page. -- Ikzing (talk) 02:05, 2 November 2009 (UTC)

Merge with Child development?
I understand that 'Childhood' is a developmental stage and relates as such to Child development, but 'Childhood' is also a concept which should be further explored on its own here and which can't really be integrated into Child development. So I vote no to the merge and recommend a summarized version of the developmental aspect on Childhood with a Main link pointing to CD. -- Ikzing (talk) 06:14, 2 November 2009 (UTC)

Article expansion
Now that I've added a number of childhood-related links, I've attempted to sort them out and created a new framework for a much needed expanded article. I will expand all these at some point when I have a little more time. If anyone has better/additional ideas, or would like to start filling things out, they are more than welcome. - Ikzing (talk) 03:00, 20 November 2009 (UTC)


 * Your efforts are appreciated. I think we should go with your plan of developing the sections for Child development, Child psychology, Child development stages (Toddler, Early childhood, Preadolescent). History of childhood looks like it could be split into history of childhood and the philosophy of childhood. Culture of childhood may also be a possibility. I will try to get on with doing something about the history section. If a section gets large enough we can give it its own article and provide a summary here.--''' SabreBD  (talk ) 07:53, 20 November 2009 (UTC)

In Our Time
Rich Farmbrough, 03:12, 16 September 2010 (UTC).

History of childhood
Philippe Ariès's 1960/62 text, while foundational for the field, has been heavily criticised, not least for the notion that the period before the 17th century lacked a concept of childhood. Cunningham's 2006 book, which examines childhood from the 7th century, cannot be considered a simple continuation of Ariès work; it reflects, rather, a general move in the field from a concern with adult conceptions of childhood to the experiences of children.

I'm not sure the Kinderculture text (Kincheloe and Steinberg) - which is not written appropriately - belongs in the history section. Might be better for a section on the sociology of childhood. FiachraByrne (talk) 11:35, 22 March 2013 (UTC)

Nature deficit disorder
If no one objects, I'm deleting this. This is pure unsourced garbage written by a nobody.This guy is not even a professional psychologist, and it's not clear at all that he has ever studied the subject before spouting off his "theory." (It is unclear he even knows what a theory scientifically is.). He IS A JOURNALIST. His opinions are not worthy of encylopedic inclusion. His Wikipedia page is a personal self-aggrandizing advertisement that should also be immediately deleted. I wouldn't be surprised if the author himself added his ridiculous theory to the page.Kingshowman (talk) 18:03, 10 August 2015 (UTC)Kingshowman

Inclusion of adolescence
This article is a bit inconsistent with its inclusion of adolescence. The article begins by saying that childhood is the period between birth and adolescence, but then later includes adolescence as a stage of childhood. Adolescence is often viewed as separate from both adulthood and childhood, and texts often say "children and adolescents" and "childhood and adolescence" rather than just "children" and "childhood" (for example, Wikipedia has Child and adolescent psychiatry and Depression in childhood and adolescence). How can this be further clarified? Sega31098 (talk) 05:27, 6 September 2015 (UTC)


 * , as you can see, Wikipedia has a Child article and a Childhood article. In some cases, while the term child excludes adolescents, the term childhood includes adolescence. Furthermore, I'm sure you know that adolescents are commonly defined as children; this is noted in the Child article. As for the lead of the article beginning with "Childhood is the age span ranging from birth to adolescence.", that can be taken to mean that the age range includes adolescence, not that it stops at adolescence. It doesn't state "between"; it states "ranging from." Flyer22 (talk) 11:32, 6 September 2015 (UTC)


 * Also, you see that the Age ranges of childhood section addresses the distinguishing aspect. So does the Adolescence section. Both sections need to be sourced, though. Flyer22 (talk) 11:37, 6 September 2015 (UTC)

Disappearance of Childhood
In the Further Reading section is a book from Neil Postman, The Disappearance of Childhood. In this book he shows how the concept of childhood has been rapidly declining. He talks about how requirements for becoming an adult(mostly reading) lead to the neccessity of childhood, and the decline in literacy also brings down this most hummane idea of the 17th century.

We should write this up in this article -- at least as a perspective(well grounded). Erwin Flaming (talk) 21:29, 5 May 2018 (UTC)