INFANCY. – From *infans* = “one who does not speak.” Immediately after the neonatal stage, in the unfolding of the ages of life (v.), infancy is encountered. In view of considerations of various kinds, it seems fitting to separate it sharply from childhood (v.), and to extend it from the first weeks of life to about the sixth year. During this period the individual undergoes organic and psychological development that enables him truly to meet life in his first extra-familial relationships (school).
Infancy may be divided into three periods. The first, or early, period begins in the second week of life and embraces the whole of the first year. During this time the individual, centering almost all his activity on vegetative life—especially digestive function—so increases his body mass that by the end of the first year his weight has tripled since birth. Yet with regard to social life, the organism is also developing its instruments, as is shown by the fact that while at birth the average weight of the fetal brain is about 330 grams, after one year it has more than doubled (about 776 grams). At three months the infant begins to hold up his head, at six months his trunk, and toward the end of the year he takes his first steps, attempting an initial exploration of the restricted world around him. This first phase is also marked by the subsequent eruption of teeth, from the incisors to the first four small molars, which enables the child to move from suckling to the first attempts at a diet closer to that of an adult.
The second period of infancy embraces the second and third years and the first six months of the fourth year. Now the child gains greater independence from his caretakers, becoming increasingly able to move freely and independently in his environment. Alongside this, his bodily form fills out (the *turgor* phase) and his psychological endowment grows richer through the development of image-fixation (especially around the third year) and an intense desire to know (the “age of why,” between the third and fourth years). During this period psychic life is dominated by sensory impressions and unfolds in the sphere of affectivity, with passionate emotional states of joy and sorrow predominating. The child’s chief 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, through moving, running, and jumping, engages in effective gymnastics and excellent training for movement. Through his initiatives and combinations in play, observing, handling, dismantling, and destroying his toys, and incessantly asking “why” about everything, he enriches his imaginative endowment, unknowingly and effortlessly accumulating the precious capital of all the psychological operations he will later deploy in subsequent ages.
The third period of infancy closes around the end of the sixth year with a kind of physical-psychic upheaval (“small puberty” of Pende or the phase of “little schizoidism”), in which, in contrast to the preceding *turgor* phases, there is a predominance of organic differentiation: the body becomes leaner, limbs lengthen, and height increases (*proceritas* phase). From the neuro-psychological side, there is heightened nervousness and a predominance of social life; feeling becomes less exuberant, and affectionateness—previously especially directed toward the mother—diminishes (Freud speaks here of the end of the “Oedipus complex”). The individual becomes more defiant toward those around him, more indifferent to others, and more withdrawn into himself; he is less sensitive to reproof and punishment, tending toward disobedience and rebellion. In this period the child’s disobedience takes on a special aspect: no longer the obstinate form of infancy, it manifests a way of seeing and judging things for himself. Reserve and natural modesty diminish, while curiosity about his own sexual organs and phenomena increases. This age is educationally dangerous because of the formation of early impressions, tendencies, and complexes with sexual content.
Yet this small storm, a prelude to the great one proper to adolescence (v.), subsides into the calm of childhood (v.), as the subject regains the bodily proportions and endocrine and neuro-psychic characteristics typical of the *turgor* periods. The true educational age and the period of primary schooling have now begun, in which the child will begin to draw on the first experiences of the wider world around him.
With regard to endocrine and neuro-vegetative balance, in the first phase of infancy the action of the thymus, pancreas, adrenal cortex, and parasympathetic system predominates. During the crisis of “small puberty” there is a temporary hyperfunction of the thyroid, certain hormones of the anterior pituitary, the adrenal medulla, and the endocrine gonads, which attempt an initial liberation from the inhibitory action of the pineal gland (v. ENDOCRINE, GLANDOLE, GLANDS), and of the sympathetic system.
According to different authors, the term infancy is used to cover periods of varying length and characteristics. Some apply the word to the entire period of life from birth to the twelfth year, dividing it into a first infancy (up to the fifth year) and a second infancy or childhood (from the fifth to the twelfth year). Others restrict the name to the first year, excluding the first two weeks of neonatal life, and already call childhood the age from the second to the tenth year, subdivided into early and later childhood around the seventh year. The framework adopted for this entry seems more consonant with common usage and with the subsequent aspects assumed by life in the period from birth to adolescence.
The pattern of development and of the shedding and eruption of teeth helps to mark clearly the terminal and intermediate boundaries of infancy; on this V. AGES OF LIFE; CHILDHOOD.
THE PEDAGOGY OF INFANCY. – The developmental phase now under consideration involves problems of the utmost importance, not only in themselves but above all for the consequences they may have, for good or ill, on subsequent phases; hence the educator’s need to study carefully the line of conduct and attitudes to be followed.
1948. The problem of suggestibility
Up to about four years of age the child, lacking critical capacity, generally manifests only imitation; he limits himself to reproducing with the greatest fidelity the gestures and words of others without understanding what he sees done or hears said. This is merely an outworking of his need for activity. From about four years onward, the suggestive factor comes into play; the child no longer acts passively as before but actively, coming under the influence of the persons around him or those who care for him, and also of the environment. In many cases it will still be the same actions as before, but now they are performed under a different impulse, with a certain awareness, because it is that particular person, and not another, who does or says something in that way. Imitation now extends not only to words and acts but also to feelings, judgments, and dispositions of the will. Hence the powerful leveling effect of suggestion in the field of education.The educator can therefore use it to instill good habits in the child and prevent bad ones from forming, e.g., to induce him to perform a disagreeable or boring action (eating an unpalatable food, swallowing a bitter or nauseating medicine, enduring minor pains, studying a lesson, writing correctly, etc.). It will be used especially to combat fear (entering a dark room, handling a tool, passing calmly by an animal or a machine). If in all these cases the person, so to speak, draws early suggestion from the example, the child will adopt the same attitude and will not yield to fear, disgust, or boredom. The child should not be intimidated by suggestions of dangers or illusory ghosts, but rather influenced in the direction necessary for the formation of dispositions that will be beneficial in the further stages of education.
Not all persons exert the same influence. The first and most important is the mother; the child judges beautiful and ugly, true and false, just and unjust everything that his mother presents to him as such. Next come the father, the persons living near him, including teachers, whom the child regards in any way as superior to himself. It is also necessary to take into account the influence of school and playmates; of friends who frequent the home; of servants and wet-nurses; especially since the suggestive charm of these persons, who may be considered as outside the family, can sometimes prove more powerful and alluring than that of the parents themselves and may lead to fatal deviations or at least ones difficult to correct.
1949. The problem of the child’s lying
Some would like to attribute lying as a characteristic trait to the child. It should rather be noted that lying (an assertion for one’s own advantage to deceive regarding facts or states of mind) implies a degree of consciousness that the child in reality does not yet possess; whereas he easily confuses imagination with reality and with equal ease considers a fact or an assertion true simply because he thinks and desires II. One should therefore be very cautious in labeling a child a liar and should examine the matter carefully. As cautious and delicate one must be when it comes to distinguishing the child’s responsibility in some particular act (e.g., cheating, quarrels in play, petty thefts, mischief, accusations cast upon others).There are, however, from the earliest years, attitudes that should rather be considered as dispositions toward pretense or lying (pretending to be ill to attract attention; using little tricks to avoid punishment; bitter tears to obtain something). Against these manifestations a kind of prophylaxis is necessary, consisting in treating the child with watchful gentleness, inspiring in him great confidence, so that he does not feel the instinctive need to defend himself by taking a wrong path.