Biologically, a child (plural: children) is generally a human between the stages of birth and puberty. Some vernacular definitions of a child include the fetus, as being an unborn child. The legal definition of "child" generally refers to a minor, otherwise known as a person younger than the age of majority. "Child" may also describe a relationship with a parent (such as sons and daughters of any age) or, metaphorically, an authority figure, or signify group membership in a clan, tribe, or religion; it can also signify being strongly affected by a specific time, place, or circumstance, as in "a child of nature" or "a child of the Sixties".
Read more about Child: Legal, Biological, and Social Definitions, Socialization, Attitudes Toward Children, Age of Responsibility, One-child Policy, Child Mortality
Famous quotes containing the word child:
“The Indians feel that each stage is crucial and that the child should be allowed to dwell in each for the appropriate period of time so that every aspect of his being can evolve, just as a plant evolves in the proper time and sequence of the seasons. Otherwise, the child never has a chance to master himself in any one phase of his life.”
—Alan Quetone (20th century)
“All of the assumptions once made about a parent’s role have been undercut by the specialists. The psychiatric specialists, the psychological specialists, the educational specialists, all have mystified child development. They have fostered the idea that understanding children and promoting their intellectual well-being is too complex for mothers and requires the intervention of experts.”
—Elaine Heffner (20th century)
“The parent must not give in to his desire to try to create the child he would like to have, but rather help the child to develop—in his own good time—to the fullest, into what he wishes to be and can be, in line with his natural endowment and as the consequence of his unique life in history.”
—Bruno Bettelheim (20th century)