童年

北京东南城角儿童
非洲儿童
童年是从出生跨越到青春期的年龄时间段。童年也可能包括青少年，但无论如何都是在成年之前。童年一般由两个阶段组成：前运算阶段（preoperational stage）和具体运算阶段（concrete operational stage）。在发展心理学中，童年被分为四个发展阶段，即婴儿期（学步期），儿童早期（玩耍期），儿童晚期（学龄期），以及青春期（青春期至后青春期）。各种各样的童年因素会影响一个人人生态度的形成。  
童年是一个让孩子学习、玩耍的时间段，是一个让孩子在家庭的爱和鼓励、及许多成人关心下变得坚强与自信的时间段。这个年龄的孩子，生活没有恐惧，远离暴力、虐待和剥削。正因如此，童年绝非仅是出生与成为成人期间的间隔。它指的是儿童的生活状态和条件，及这些年的生活品质。

**童年的年龄跨度**
童年的具体时间并不明确，它可以指人类发展中的一段长时间。以发育和生物学而言，它指的是婴儿期与成年期之间的时期。一般而言，童年从出生开始。也有人认为，童年是玩耍和纯真的代名词。许多国家的法律中规定了着法定成人年龄，即一个人的童年正式结束，而在法律上成为成人的年龄。这一年龄各国有所不同，一般在15到20岁之间，其中以18岁最为普遍。

**童年的发育阶段**

**儿童早期**
一组儿童在演奏小提琴。

**脚注**

**扩展阅读**
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*Kincaid, James R. Child-Loving: The Erotic Child and Victorian Culture. New York: Routledge, 1992.
*Knörr, Jacqueline, ed. Childhood and Migration. From Experience to Agency. Bielefeld: Transcript, 2005.
*Müller, Anja, ed. Fashioning Childhood in the Eighteenth Century: Age and Identity. Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2006.
*O’Malley, Andrew. The Making of the Modern Child: Children’s Literature and Childhood in the Late Eighteenth Century. London: Routledge, 2003.
*Pinchbeck, Ivy and Margaret Hewitt. Children in English Society. 2 vols. London: Routledge, 1969.
*Pollock, Linda A. Forgotten Children: Parent-child relations from 1500 to 1900. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983.
*Postman, Neil. The Disappearance of Childhood. New York: Vintage, 1994.
*Schultz, James. The Knowledge of Childhood in the German Middle Ages.
*Shorter, Edward. The Making of the Modern Family.
*Sommerville, C. John. The Discovery of Childhood in Puritan England. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1992.
*Steinberg, Shirley R. and Joe L. Kincheloe. Kinderculture: The Corporate Construction of Childhood. Westview Press Inc., 2004. ISBN 081339157.
*Stone, Lawrence. The Family, Sex and Marriage in England 1500-1800. New York: Harper and Row, 1979.
*Zornado, Joseph L. Inventing the Child: Culture, Ideology, and the Story of Childhood. New York: Garland, 2001.

**外部链接**
Childhood- 世界儿童基金会 date=20191115084443 - Meeting Early Childhood Needs
新条目《童年》高尔基