童年

北京東南城角兒童
非洲兒童
童年是從出生跨越到青春期的年齡時間段。童年也可能包括青少年，但無論如何都是在成年之前。童年一般由兩個階段組成：前運算階段（preoperational stage）和具體運算階段（concrete operational stage）。在發展心理學中，童年被分為四個發展階段，即嬰兒期（學步期），兒童早期（玩耍期），兒童晚期（學齡期），以及青春期（青春期至後青春期）。各種各樣的童年因素會影響一個人人生態度的形成。  
童年是一個讓孩子學習、玩耍的時間段，是一個讓孩子在家庭的愛和鼓勵、及許多成人關心下變得堅強與自信的時間段。這個年齡的孩子，生活沒有恐懼，遠離暴力、虐待和剝削。正因如此，童年絕非僅是出生與成為成人期間的間隔。它指的是兒童的生活狀態和條件，及這些年的生活品質。

**童年的年齡跨度**
童年的具體時間並不明確，它可以指人類發展中的一段長時間。以發育和生物學而言，它指的是嬰兒期與成年期之間的時期。一般而言，童年從出生開始。也有人認為，童年是玩耍和純真的代名詞。許多國家的法律中規定了著法定成人年齡，即一個人的童年正式結束，而在法律上成為成人的年齡。這一年齡各國有所不同，一般在15到20歲之間，其中以18歲最為普遍。

**童年的發育階段**

**兒童早期**
一組兒童在演奏小提琴。

**腳註**

**擴展閱讀**
Ariès, Philippe. Centuries of Childhood: A Social History of Family Life. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1962.
*Boas, George. The Cult of Childhood. London: Warburg, 1966.
*Brown, Marilyn R., ed. Picturing Children: Constructions of Childhood between Rousseau and Freud. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2002.
*Buckingham, David. After the Death of Childhood: Growing Up in the Age of Electronic Media. Blackwell Publishers, 2000. ISBN 0-7456-1933-9.
*Bunge, Marcia J., ed. The Child in Christian Thought. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2001.
*Calvert, Karin. Children in the House: The Material Culture of Early Childhood, 1600-1900. Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1992.
*Cleverley, John and D.C. Phillips. Visions of Childhood: Influential Models from Locke to Spock. New York: Teachers College, 1986.
*Cannella, Gaile and Joe L. Kincheloe. "Kidworld: Childhood Studies, Global Perspectives, and Education". New York: Peter Lang, 2002.
*Cunningham, Hugh. Children and Childhood in Western Society since 1500. London: Longman, 1995.
*Cunnington, Phillis and Anne Buck. Children’s Costume in England: 1300 to 1900. New York: Barnes & Noble, 1965.
*deMause, Lloyde, ed. The History of Childhood. London: Souvenir Press, 1976.
*Higonnet, Anne. Pictures of Innocence: The History and Crisis of Ideal Childhood. London: Thames and Hudson Ltd., 1998.
*Immel, Andrea and Michael Witmore, eds. Childhood and Children’s Books in Early Modern Europe, 1550-1800. New York: Routledge, 2006.
*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.

**外部鏈接**
Childhood- 世界兒童基金會 date=20191115084443 - Meeting Early Childhood Needs
新條目《童年》高爾基