“So Big”: The Development of Body Self‐Awareness in Toddlers
- 19 September 2007
- journal article
- Published by Wiley in Child Development
- Vol. 78 (5), 1426-1440
- https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2007.01075.x
Abstract
Early development of body self-awareness was examined in 57 children at 18, 22, or 26 months of age, using tasks designed to require objective representation of one’s own body. All children made at least one body representation error, with approximately 2.5 errors per task on average. Errors declined with age. Children’s performance on comparison tasks that required them to reason about the relative size of objects and about objects as obstacles, without considering their own bodies, was unrelated to performance on the body awareness tasks. Thus, the ability to represent and reflect on one’s own body explicitly and objectively may be a unique dimension of early development, a distinct component of objective self-awareness that emerges in this age period.Keywords
This publication has 54 references indexed in Scilit:
- Mirror Self‐Recognition Beyond the FaceChild Development, 2006
- Neural Substrate of Body Size: Illusory Feeling of Shrinking of the WaistPLoS Biology, 2005
- Development of Self‐Recognition, Personal Pronoun Use, and Pretend Play During the 2nd YearChild Development, 2004
- A longitudinal investigation of self–other discrimination and the emergence of mirror self-recognitionInfant Behavior and Development, 2003
- Children's Understanding of Self-Presentational Behavior: Links With Mental-State Reasoning and the Attribution of EmbarrassmentMerrill-Palmer Quarterly, 2002
- Development of Visual Self-Recognition in InfancyEcological Psychology, 1996
- An Integrative Model of the Development of Autobiographical MemoryDevelopmental Review, 1995
- Mental models of mirror-self-recognition: Two theoriesNew Ideas in Psychology, 1993
- Self Development and Self-Conscious EmotionsChild Development, 1989
- The development of early visual self-recognitionDevelopmental Review, 1984