EARLY CHILDHOOD CARE AND DEVELOPMENT

Lesson 09: Gender development during ECE

Observation

• Children also learn gender roles by observing others.
• Children do not pay equal attention, and learn equally from, everyone.
• They observe and imitate the behavior of others of the same sex.
• Children imitate a same-sex model if the model is familiar but not if the model is unfamiliar.
• Children pay attention to people who are prestigious or nurturing such as sports and movie stars, teachers, and family members-they are likely to imitate these individuals.
• Sometimes children imitate the behaviors of other-sex people; girls are more likely to do this than boys. Boys will imitate girls only if they are shown to be powerful.