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Article: Age and Development
- Article from:
- Encyclopedia of Children and Childhood in History and Society
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2004 The Gale Group Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Age and Development
Age and development are concepts central to contemporary Western understandings of children's growth and to the way industrialized societies have been organized since approximately the middle of the nineteenth century. If the notion of development offers a m
ap to social and cultural constructions of maturity, the physiological and psychological characteristics accompanying chronological age are the signposts of notable change along its path. By the late twentieth century, the developmental stages of juvenile maturation were thought to proceed in sequence through eight distinguishable but overlapping stages: from early infancy to later infancy; to early childhood and ...