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Essay / Tiny Traditions - 3714
Introduction: First understanding of the genreThe image of a daycare illustrates a space for play and education in a person's mind. Here a child can learn, interact and have fun only by themselves or with other people such as peers or authority figures. Although child development from an early age is essential, subliminal messages are hidden in developmental actions; In an early childhood education site, indirect and unintended messages about gender are heard and observed on a daily basis, to which all children, especially infants and toddlers, are susceptible. Toddlers and infants will recognize what defines girls and boys due to their exposure to gender, as evidenced by the use of gendered words, such as "he" and "she", or their toys, such as dolls for girls and trucks for boys. Society can recognize that child care is an area that instigates gender socialization from an early age and is perpetuated through the child's interaction with peers and adults around them. In this study, I will focus on gender influences among daycare students and how gender is prevalent during early adolescence. Although many researchers have addressed the topic of gender in children, I will further contribute to this study by focusing on the child's interactions with their friends and authority figures that surround them on a daily basis. I will discuss that gender is perceived and externalized through many different actions that a child encounters when interacting with same- and opposite-sex peers, teachers, and teaching assistants. Additionally, my study focuses on the toddler age group, ranging from 2 to 3.5 years, because toddlers are more aware of their surroundings and interactions. In an early childhood educational program...... middle of article......2 (1993):151-166.Hayta, Ates. “Socialization of the child as a consumer.” Journal of Research in Family and Consumer Sciences 37.2 (2008): 167-184. Rankin, Baji. “The Importance of Intentional Socialization in Children in Small Groups: A Conversation with Loris Malaguzzi.” Journal of Early Childhood Education 32.2 (2004):81-85. Sereno, Sara C. and Patrick J. O'Donnell. “Participant and word gender in age of acquisition effects: the role of gender socialization.” Sex Roles 61.7/8 (2009): 510-.Walford, Geoffrey and Caroline Hudson. Genders and sexualities in educational ethnographies. New York, NY: Elsevier Science, Inc., 2000. Print. Zosuls, Kristina, Diane Ruble, Catherine LeMonda, Patrick Shrout, Marc Bornstein and Faith Greulich. “The acquisition of gender labels in early childhood: Implications for gender-specific play.” Developmental psychology 45.3 (2009):688-701.