"You need to teach a child while he is lying across the bench, and how it lies along it will be too late!" Some people have heard this folk wisdom, but not everyone thinks about its meaning. But in it lies the centuries-old experience of our ancestors, who noticed that the character of a person is formed, as a rule, in childhood.
How and when character is formed
Most experts believe that the foundations of character are laid at the age of 2 years. This is greatly influenced by the social environment surrounding the child, that is, his immediate environment (parents, grandparents, other relatives and close friends of the family, often in the house). It is under their influence, following the examples that they give, the child begins to become aware of himself as a person, draws conclusions about the boundaries of the permissible.
A very important role is also played by the degree of development of the child, the state of his psyche. After all, how a person reacts to any influences, external stimuli, depends on the characteristics of the brain. And such reactions have a great influence on the formation of specific character traits.
At the age of 5-6 years, the laid foundations of character can be substantially supplemented or adjusted. This happens as the child becomes smarter and more experienced, learns more about the world around him, communicates and plays with other children. An important role is also played by the system of rewards and punishments adopted in his family. Before the start of the school phase of a child’s life, the character can be supplemented with such business and communicative features as sociability, perseverance, accuracy. The opposite option is also possible, of course, when it is difficult for a child to communicate with peers, but they cannot be taught to be accurate.
During the training at school, character traits are formed that relate to the emotional-volitional sphere. The child actually falls into another world, is faced with the need to obey discipline, limit his desires. This can both consolidate the already existing features of his character, and destroy them, depending on willpower and on the moral and psychological situation in the educational institution.
By the time of graduation, at the age of 16-17, the character of a person, in the vast majority of cases, is already fully formed.