Saturday, May 29, 2010

Gender Identity and Gender Confusion In Children – Healthy Children


Does your daughter refuse to wear dresses and like throwing a football with the boys in the neighborhood? Does your son have an interest in girls' clothes or cosmetics?

When middle-years children exhibit these kinds of behavior, their parents often are concerned and many questions arise: Is my youngster's behavior abnormal? Should I be trying to change him or her? Does he or she need profes­sional help?

Youngsters actually begin developing strong gender identities long before middle childhood. A child's awareness of being a boy or a girl starts in the first year of life. It often begins by eight to ten months of age, when youngsters typ­ically discover their genitals. Then, between one and two years old, children become conscious of physical differences between boys and girls; before their third birthday they are easily able to label themselves as either a boy or a girl as they acquire a strong concept of self. By age four, children's gender identity is stable, and they know they will always be a boy or a girl. Read more - Healthy Children
http://www.healthychildren.org/English/ages-stages/gradeschool/pages/Gender-Identity-and-Gender-Confusion-In-Children.aspx?nfstatus=401&nftoken=00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000&nfstatusdescription=ERROR%3a+No+local+token

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