Childhood Years

In the beginning of every child’s life they experience what most like to call milestones. At birth a baby knows no more than to cry when in need. Freud characterizes this stage in a babies life as the oral stage. A baby is “ interested in oral gratification from sucking, eating, mouthing, and biting” ( Feldamn, 2006). As a parent I agree with Freud on the stage of development of children at birth. My daughter like to put everything in her mouth and now at two years old she still puts things in her mouth. Along with Frueds idea I can assume that learning to talk would fall under the oral stage. When my daughter was a few months old she began to make sounds, like all babies do. She would gurggle and squeal. When she would hear herself it made me look around as to find where the sound was coming from. I would mimick her sounds and she would repeat them back to me. I was trying to help her hear me and make the sound herself. She would succedd every time, but she figured out soon enough what she was capable of. She began taking on different crys for the different moods she was in. As part of oral development she was trying to communicate with me to tell me she needed something without being able to say the words. I would know when she was hungry or wet or simply when she wanted

to be held. Now that my daughter is two years old her vocabulary is beyond the gurrgels and crys. She can tell me what she likes and dislikes by using words in a somewhat complete sentence. Her vocabulary is above average for most children her age. I want to say it is because she is around so many adults and listene to us when we talk and picks up meanings for words and the emotions in our voice because she often copies things that I say or actions that I do. Strangers who meet her for the first time can’t believe how well developed her vocabulary is. Now I’m not sure if my mocking had anything to do with it or because she is around so many adults that her vocabulary is so developed I do believe that her oral development did start at birth from sucking to gurggling to crying and now speaking.

Along with the Oral stage starting at birth to 18 months, Freuds second stage in Psychosexual Development begins in the first 12-18 months to three years. This stage examines the “gratification from expelling and withholding feces; coming to terms with society’s controls relating to toilet training” (Feldman, 2006). Basically Freud believes that at this stage in a child’s life the child enjoys the feeling of being independent and recieveing positive