Importance of Childhood

The concept of childhood it is broad and very comprehensive; In summary, it is preferred to define it as the period of life of human beings that begins with birth and ends at death. adolescence, during which most of the physiological, psychological and social development is described.

Other authors prefer to distinguish between the neonatal period (up to the fourth week of life), the lactation stage (between the fourth week and twenty-four months) and childhood proper. This distinction is independent of actual breastfeeding, but is based on the functional differences between these early stages of life and later events. Some specialists even consider adolescence as one more phase of childhood, while that other experts propose it as an exclusively social stage and related to factors cultural.

The importance of childhood lies in numerous aspects, of which the biological and psychosocial deserve to be highlighted. On the one hand, most of the physical growth of extrauterine life occurs in this period, supported by the rapid progression of the skeleton and musculature in children with adequate

nutrition. On the other hand, the life of relationship with other human beings (family nucleus at first, peers and other people in later phases) has its origin in the childhood itself, with the possibility of defining bonds that can last a lifetime.

In different models that allow explaining the construction of the personality, emphasis is placed on the importance of childhood the complementation of the genetic potential, the physical and affective experiences of the first months of life and the social relations in the later years. Such is the relevance of these processes in childhood that alterations in these phases give rise to disturbances that can be the starting point of mental illnesses of various magnitudes in the future.

Despite these compelling data, a significant proportion of the world's children do not meet their needs elementary to give rise to an adequate adult life, as a consequence of affective, nutritional, health and other nature. The knowledge of the importance of childhood as a foundational stage of human beings, it can be a starting point to understand the need to dedicate efforts to provide children with the best environment for their development.