INFANZIA. – From infans = one who does not speak. Immediately after the neonatal phase, in the life (v.) one encounters i. In relation to considerations of various kinds, it seems that it deserves childhood (v.) and that it should extend from the first weeks of life to approximately the entire sixth year. Throughout this period the individual undergoes organic and psychological development, capable of making him suited for his true encounter with life, in his first extra-family relationships (school).
I. may be divided into three periods. The first, or early i., begins in the second week of life and comprises the whole of the first year, during which the individual, as though concentrating all his activity in vegetative life, particularly the digestive function, increases his body mass so greatly that, at the end of the first year, he has tripled the weight he had at birth. Yet, also with regard to relational life, the organism develops its instruments, as is demonstrated by the fact that whereas at the birth of the fetus the brain weighs on average approximately 330 grams, after one year it has more than doubled in weight (on average approximately 776 grams). At three months the infant begins to support his head, at six months his trunk, and, approximately at the end of the year, takes his first steps, attempting an initial exploration of the restricted world surrounding him. This first phase is also marked by the successive eruption of the teeth, from the incisors to the first four small molars, which enables the child to pass from nursing to his first attempts at a form of nourishment closer to that of the adult.
The second i. comprises the second and third years and the first six months of the fourth year of life. The child now acquires increasing autonomy with respect to his caregivers, becoming ever more capable of moving freely and independently in the environment in which he lives. At the same time, his bodily forms become fuller (turgor phase) and his psychological endowment becomes richer, through the development of the process of fixing images (particularly around the 3rd year of age) and the intense desire to know (“age of why,” between the 3rd and 4th years). During this period psychic life is dominated by sensitive and sensory impressions and unfolds in the sphere of affectivity, with emotional and passionate states of joy or sorrow predominating. His principal occupation is play, which at this age should not be regarded as a form of dissipation or rest, but as the means by which the child, moving, running, and jumping, performs effective physical exercise, excellent training for his muscles; through the initiatives and combinations involved in his games, by observing, handling, taking apart, and destroying his toys, and by incessantly asking why everything is as it is, he enriches the resources of his imagination, accumulating, without realizing it and without effort, the precious capital of all the psychological operations that he will subsequently perform at later ages.
There follows the third i., which closes approximately at the end of the 6th year of age with a kind of physiological and psychological revolution (“small puberty” according to Pende, or the phase of “small schizoidism”) in which, in contrast with the preceding phases of turgor, organic differentiation prevails on the bodily level, with weight loss, lengthening of the limbs, and growth in height (proceritas phase); on the neuropsychological level, nervousness is accentuated and relational life predominates; feeling becomes less exuberant, and the previously more particular affection for the mother begins to diminish (Freud speaks here of the end of the “Oedipus complex”). Irritable with those around him, more indifferent to others and more withdrawn into himself, the individual is less sensitive to reprimand and punishment, tending toward disobedience and rebellion. During this period the child’s disobedience takes on a particular character: it is no longer the obstinate form of i., but the manifestation of his own way of seeing and judging things. Reserve and the natural sense of modesty diminish, together with a greater curiosity about the organs and phenomena proper to sex; this age is dangerous from an educational point of view because of the formation of initial impressions, tendencies, and complexes with sexual content.
But by now this minor disturbance, a prelude to adolescence (v.), childhood (v.), while the subject gradually regains the bodily proportions and the endocrine and neuropsychic characteristics proper to the periods of turgor. He has now entered the true educational age and the period of primary schooling, in which the child will begin to profit from his first experiences of the world, now broader, that surrounds him.
With regard to endocrine and neurovegetative equilibrium, during the first phase of i. the action of the thymus, pancreas, adrenal cortex, and parasympathetic nervous system predominates; during the crisis of “small puberty” there is a temporary hyperfunction of the thyroid, of certain hormones of the anterior pituitary, of the adrenal medulla, and of the endocrine gonads, which attempt to free themselves for the first time from the inhibitory action of the epiphysis (v. ENDOCRINE, GLANDOLE, GLANDOLÉ), as well as of the sympathetic nervous system.
According to different authors, the term i. is used to include periods of varying extent and characteristics. Thus, some apply the word to the entire period of life extending from birth to the 12th year, dividing it into first i. (up to the 5th year) and second i., or childhood (from the 5th to the 12th). Others reserve the name for the 1st year, excluding the first two weeks of neonatal life, and already call the age from the 2nd to the 10th year of life childhood, divided into early and later childhood, with the division falling approximately at six years. The framework adopted for this entry seems more consistent with common usage and with the successive aspects assumed by life during the period extending from birth to adolescence.
The course of development and replacement of the teeth also helps to mark clearly the terminal and intermediate boundaries of i.; on this, V. ETÀ DELLA VITA; FANCIULLEZZA.
1948. The problem of suggestibility
Up to the age of 4, the child, who does not yet possess critical capacity, generally has only imitation; he limits himself to reproducing with the greatest fidelity the gestures and words of others, without realizing what he sees done or hears said; this is simply an expression of his need for activity. From about the age of 4 onward, the suggestive factor comes into play; the child no longer acts passively as before, but actively, coming under the influence of the people who surround or care for him, and also of his environment; in very many cases the actions will still be the same as before, but they are now performed under a different impulse, with a certain awareness, because that particular person, and not others, acts or speaks in that way. And imitation concerns not only words and actions, but also feelings, judgments, and dispositions of the will. Hence the powerful leveling effect of suggestion in the field of education.The educator may therefore use it to form good habits in the child and prevent bad ones from developing, e.g., to induce him to perform a repugnant or tedious action (eat food he does not like, swallow a bitter or nauseating medicine, endure minor pains, study his lesson, write correctly, etc.). Above all, he will use it to combat fear (entering a dark room, handling a weapon, walking calmly past an animal or a machine). If, in all these cases, the person who is, so to speak, the suggestive influence goes first by setting an example, the child will adopt the same attitude and will not yield to fear, repugnance, or boredom. The child should not be frightened by insinuations of imaginary dangers or ghosts, but rather influenced in the direction necessary for the formation of dispositions that will be beneficial in the later phases of education.
Not all people exercise the same influence. The first and most important is the mother; the child judges everything that his mother presents to him as such to be beautiful or ugly, true or false, just or unjust. Next come the father and those who live near him, including teachers, whom the child in some way regards as superior to himself. It is also necessary to take account of the influence of schoolmates and playmates; of friends who visit the home, domestic servants, and nurses; all the more because the suggestive fascination of these persons, who may be regarded as outsiders to the family, can sometimes prove more powerful and alluring than that of the parents themselves and can lead to fatal deviations, or at least ones difficult to correct.
1949. The problem of childhood lying
Some would attribute lying to I. as a characteristic trait. It must instead be observed that lying (an assertion made for one’s own advantage in order to deceive concerning events that have occurred or states of mind) implies a degree of consciousness that the child in fact does not yet possess; while he easily confuses imagination with reality and with equal ease regards an event or an assertion as true simply because he thinks and desires II. It will therefore be advisable to exercise caution before branding him a liar and to examine the matter carefully. Caution and delicacy are likewise necessary when it comes to distinguishing a child’s responsibility in some particular act (e.g., frauds, quarrels during play, petty thefts, mischief, accusations directed at others).From the earliest years, however, there are attitudes that should be regarded rather as dispositions toward simulation or lying (pretending to be in pain in order to attract attention; defensive devices for avoiding punishment; bitter tears to obtain something). Against these manifestations a kind of prophylaxis is necessary, consisting in treating the child with watchful gentleness and inspiring great confidence in him, so that he does not feel the instinctive need to defend himself by following an erroneous path.