Sexuality in Childhood , Adolescence, & Early Adulthood Chapters 6 & 7 Lecture Notes Main Topics

Lecture Notes Sexuality weaves its way through our lives and our views and behaviors change as our life paths and experiences do. Thus sexuality education is essential to equip individuals to make informed choices about sexual initiation, behaviors, and relationships. Opportunities to address sexual issues arise throughout childhood and adolescence. Adults should utilize these opportunities to facilitate discussion about sex. However, adolescence and early adulthood are often times of curiosity and experimentation, mixed with peer pressure and the desires to belong and to be loved. As we enter adulthood, with greater experience and understanding, we develop a potentially mature sexuality. We establish our sexual orientation, integrate love and sexuality, forge intimate connections and make commitments, make decisions regarding our fertility, and develop coherent sexual philosophies. Sexuality in Childhood and Adolescence (Chapter 6)

Lecture Notes From birth, we are rich in sexual and erotic potential, which begins to take shape in our sexual curiosity and experimentations in childhood. As children, we are only partly formed, but the world around us helps shape our sexuality. We will examine both physical development and psychosexual development. Psychosexual development involves the psychological aspects of sexuality. Our understanding of infant sexuality is based on observation and inference. It is obvious that babies derive sensual pleasure from stroking, cuddling, bathing, and other tactile stimulation. The young child's healthy psychosexual development lays the foundation for further stages of growth. Psychosexual maturity, including the ability to love, begins to develop in infancy, when babies are lovingly touched all over their bodies. Infancy and Sexual Response (Ages 0 to 2)

Lecture Notes The body actually begins its first sexual response in utero. Sonograms have shown that boys have erections. This begins a pattern of erections that will occur throughout their lives. Signs of sexual arousal in girls, though less easily detected, begin soon after birth and include vaginal lubrication and genital swelling. In some cases, both male and female infants have been observed experiencing what appears to be an orgasm. Obviously, an infant is unable to differentiate sexual pleasure from other types of enjoyment, so viewing these as sexual responses are adult interpretations of these normal reflexes and do not necessarily signify the infant's desire or interest. What it does reveal is that the capacity for sexual response is present soon after conception. Image from McGraw Hill Image Library Childhood Sexuality (Ages 3 to 11)