8.9: Age

In middle-class U.S. families, children are often not regarded as capable of caring for themselves or tending another child until perhaps age 10 (or later in some regions). In the U.K., it is an offense to leave a child under age 14 years without adult supervision (Subbotsky, 1995). However, in many other communities around the world, children begin to take on responsibility for tending other children at ages 5–7 (Rogoff et al, 1975), and in some places even younger children begin to assume this responsibility. For example, among the Kwara’ae of Oceania, three year olds are skilled workers in the gardens and household, excellent caregivers of their younger siblings, and accomplished at social interaction. Although young children also have time to play, many of the functions of play seem to be met by work. For both adults and children, work is accompanied by singing, joking, verbal play and entertaining conversation. Instead of playing with dolls, children care for real babies. In addition to working in the family gardens, young children have their own garden plots. The latter may seem like play, but by three or four years of age many children are taking produce they have grown themselves to the market to sell, thereby making a significant and valued contribution to the family income. (Watson-Gegeo, 1990, p. 87)

Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\): In some cultures, it is the norm for the older siblings to raise the younger ones. (CC BY-SA 4.0; Basile Morin via Wikimedia)

When do children’s judgment and coordination allow them to handle sharp knives safely? Although U.S. middle-class adults often do not trust children below about age 5 with knives, among the Efe of the Democratic Republic of Congo, infants routinely use machetes safely (Rogoff, 2003). Likewise, New Guinea infants handle knives and fire safely by the time they are able to walk (Rogoff, 2003). Parents of Central Africa teach 8- to 10-month-old infants how to throw small spears and use small pointed digging sticks and miniature axes with sharp metal blades: Training for autonomy begins in infancy. Infants are allowed to crawl or walk to whatever they want in camp and allowed to use knives, machetes, digging sticks, and clay pots around camp. Only if an infant begins to crawl into a fire or hits another child do parents or others interfere with the infant’s activity (Rogoff, 2003). It was not unusual, for instance, to see an eight month old with a six-inch knife chopping the branch frame of its family’s house. By three or four years of age children can cook themselves a meal on the fire, and by ten years of age, children know enough subsistence skills to live in the forest alone if need be. (Rogoff, 2003). This evidence shows that children's wide range of abilities are linked to cultural practices, and many of our cultural practices either put limitations on what we allow children to do, or enhance children's abilities. Rogoff & Chavajay discussed how cultural practices relate to the development of ways of thinking, remembering, reasoning, and problem solving. (1995). What children are learning from a young age can impact how they learn, develop, and determine their practical skills during their later ages.

References

Rogoff, B. (2003). The Cultural Nature of Human Development. Oxford University Press, Inc. New York, New York.

Rogoff, B., & Chavajay, P. (1995). What's become of research on the cultural basis of cognitive development? American Psychologist, 50(10), 859–877.

Rogoff, B., Sellers, M. J., Pirrotta, S., Fox, N., & White, S. H. (1975). Age of Assignment of Roles and Responsibilities to Children: A Cross-Cultural Survey. Human Development, 18(5), 353–369.

Subbotsky, Eugene. (1995). The Development of Pragmatic and Non-Pragmatic Motivation. Human Development. 38. 217-234.

Watson-Gegeo, K. A. (1990). The social transfer of cognitive skills in Kwara’ae. Quarterly Newsletter of the Laboratory of Comparative Human Cognition, 12, 86–90.