童年

**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，及這些年的生活品質。

## 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

## 脚注

## 扩展阅读
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*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.

## 外部链接

*
*世界儿童基金会 
*Meeting Early Childhood Needs

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