Childhood/Latency

What do a five year olds do?

What games do 7- 9 yr olds play ?

Monsters, witches, dragons….. The outside world is beginning to open up and offers excitement but also fear of the unknown. Children’s stories are filled with giants and monsters and dragons all of which have to be overcome by characters that are strong, noble and good.

Games often replicate family life and adult relationships Games often replicate family life and adult relationships. Children create secret places, hideaways, dens, to act out their games of families and pseudo-adult relationships. People are divided into polarised groups of ‘the goodies’ and ‘the baddies’.

For the normally developing child…. Rules, certainties and structures are a way of keeping out doubts and fears and to manage all the new anxieties about all that there is to learn achieve and do ….without the safebase of the family…. Meltzer (1997) notes the latency child’s satisfaction in naming and learning by rote : a mastery based on labelling rather than enquiry …learning about things …there are endless lists of things…things are collected, swopped, ordered and sorted…..

Beginning to find an identity of self Building inner strength Latency Beginning to find an identity of self Building inner strength Have developed source memory Managing the next stage of separation Letting go of parents

The way of not losing them is to internalise them – as a mixture of: A loving safe and reliable presence Rule enforcing figures It is crucially important to mental health and development that these are in balance and provide the child with an internal working model that allows him to function on his own. Later these will become his moral code influenced by the values and qualities of his parents.

THE latency CHILD? Is there a space in the parents mind for the absent child? Is the child being held in mind?