The early years of development are very crucial for a child. According to the Functionalist Theory of development at the age of 2 years, a child becomes capable of recognizing and relating to basic prime emotions like anger, happiness, sadness, etc. Studies have shown that children become ‘self-conscious’ and can display emotions like embarrassment as early as two years of age. Research has shown that in a study conducted that kids who can recognize their emotions are better able to manage their negative emotions such as anger (Denham,1986). Pediatricians (Dr. Amna Husain, pediatrician, and Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics) further confirm such findings and state that by the age of 2 to 3 years children learn how to mask their emotions as a response to social norms and in line with cultural acceptance.

Self-awareness is the ability of a person to identify their own feelings and also recognize how those feelings and emotions affect the people around them. Being an integral part of the personality of a child it has also been listed as one of the core life skills by the World Health Organisation. According to CASEL, self-awareness has been defined as “the ability to understand one’s own emotions, thoughts, and values and how they influence behavior across contexts”, and is one of the major competencies of their Social Emotional Learning framework. Self-awareness can be distinguished as:

• Private self-awareness can be understood as what a child knows about themselves. The thoughts and emotions that they are aware of are related and being felt by them which others around them may not necessarily be aware of. For example, the feeling of butterflies that kids get before reading in front of the class. If they recognize that it is because they are nervous, it is known as their private self-awareness. It is a feeling recognized and known only to them and nobody else.
• Public self-awareness is developed concerning the surroundings. It is for a child to be aware of how other people who they interact with or are surrounded by, see them. The development of such awareness occurs at a later stage. Child begins to understand the thoughts, feelings, and perspectives of others and how they are different from their own selves. According to the theory of mind, It is around the age of 5 when children are unable to accept and recognize that others can have a different viewpoint or perspective from the one that they hold. Infants lack the ability to distinguish between themselves and the environment in the first month; however, they develop this ability gradually as they grow (Neisser,1991). This self-awareness gets distributed into various facets of self as a child enters the late childhood and adolescence phase of life.

Role of Self Awareness in the development of a child

Self-awareness plays an important role in helping a child recognize and work on the emotions and feelings related to them and form a connection between those emotions and the thought process and values to communicate and interact with their surroundings in a healthy way. These linkages help them to learn while they communicate and thus form healthy social relationships. It also allows them to create a wider perspective on their own regarding the environment. It not only makes the child understand themselves more and be more self-aware but also helps in enhancing their personal and professional life performance and achievements.

Self-awareness is developed in stages (The 5 stages of self-awareness were constructed by Rochat in Emory University’s Philippe in 2003). It serves as the contributing factor for goal-oriented behavior development. As the child interacts with objects and stimuli in the environment, and identity of self develops. Various stimuli help children reflect and focus on themselves and thus develop perception and awareness about their own self. This development and formation of perception are mediated by the prefrontal cortex.

Piaget has linked the development of object permanence in infants to the objectification of self. Object permanence can be understood as the ability to know that a certain thing exists even if it is not in sight. For infants, this ability is not developed since birth and thus whatever goes out of their sight ceases to exist for them. For example, if a child was playing with a toy and you hide it, then the toy would cease to exist for the infant after a few seconds and the infant will begin to play with some other toy in sight. But as the child grows, the child not only establishes the existence of objects beyond his sight but also starts identifying themselves as an objects with certain properties in the environment. As the child grows, the interaction with peers and the environment leads to a formation of identity and self-esteem during middle childhood. This development of identity in children has been linked to the development of self-regulation (Koop, 1982). According to Vygotsky, During preschool age, perception and generalization lead to the formation of self-image. Many generalized emotions that are more focused on an entire event rather than a specific situation or person are depicted. But as the child becomes aware of himself and the surrounding, emotional anticipation develops which makes the child aware of emotions related to specific situations or persons. Any given situation which demands an emotional response is driven by the culture and society that the child is a part of.

Mindfulness practices are used by teachers to thus enhance these executive functions in pre-school years to yield better academic benefits as the child grows older.

Developmental psychology journal published by the American Psychological Association recently conducted a series of experiments to identify the emotion of embarrassment in toddlers. A set of four separate experiments on 144 toddlers of the age group 14-24 months revealed that kids were self-aware about being watched or observed and thus they behaved better in presence of an observer rather than when they were left alone. Thus, not only adults but toddlers are also self-aware.

But if their emotions are displaced and the child is unable to relate to them then she or he will lack in expressing their emotions appropriately which could lead to stress and hindrance in their healthy growth and development of their mental processes.

The importance of having a strong self-awareness

Self-awareness is an important asset for children who struggle to build positive self-esteem. It brings a positive approach to interpersonal relationships with peers. They are more aware of their strengths and weaknesses. They are able to communicate their needs better and put forward their viewpoints in a more sorted way. According to a study, emotional self-awareness helps to increase the personal contributions of an individual in a team and thus resolve feelings about personal goals due to better communication. This allows them to work towards collaborative goals as a team and thus perform better.

Self-awareness helps the child to develop better self-monitoring and self-regulation strategies. They are aware of their tasks and activities and are able to make decisions on their own. They reflect on their activities and results and analyze their achievements, mistakes, strengths, and weaknesses. It gives them a perspective to plan things better for next time to succeed.

Strong self-awareness academically helps children in finding mistakes in their work and editing it themselves. They communicate and empathize better. They also notice what effect their behavior has on others and modify it accordingly. It also makes them more self resilient and promotes a growth mindset. A study conducted in the UK on 348 students in the age group 7-13 years of age, introduced an intervention move4words and conducted 3 trials of the same. The intervention was focused on increasing the self-awareness and attention span of children. The overall results revealed that significant academic improvement was seen even for the students in the lowest 20 percentile.

Research has established that the foundations of emotional intelligence are laid during early childhood. This high potency can be attributed to complex psychological developments that a child goes through during this phase. Making children aware of themselves and their environment and managing those emotions within themselves and with others is related to a more successful life in the future.

Emotional intelligence development programs have proved effective towards better self-image formation when introduced in early childhood. They have had a positive effect on the induction of lesser behavioral problems and better interpersonal relationships. It escalates their academic performance and also boosts their physical and mental health.