Children learn so many things as they grow. It’s easy to forget that one of the most important things they learn is… who they are. Young children develop a sense of self as they interact with the world. They learn from the environments, relationships, cultures, and media that surround them every day.
Importantly, as the sense of self blossoms, messages about the self can come from the self too. As they grow, children rely on how they think about themselves to make decisions about what they can and should do. This kind of self-experience is an important part of the developing sense of self.
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- Academic sense of self
- how a person thinks of themself as a student
- Bias
- the belief that some people or ideas are better than others, usually resulting in unfair treatment
- BIPOC
- Black, Indigenous, people of color
- Conscious
- thoughts or feelings that we are aware of
- Growth mindset
- the belief that, with effort, you can learn and achieve new things.
- In-group preference
- the tendency to form close relationships with others in a person’s same groups
- Self-esteem
- a cluster of characteristics, such as feeling confident, having pride in oneself, and a sense of self-worth
- Sense of self
- how a person thinks and feels about their self
- Stereotype
- a widespread belief that a person must have a trait because they belong to a particular group
- Unconscious
- thoughts or feelings that we are unaware of