Lead
One afternoon, your child sits on the front step putting on shoes and announces, without particular prompting: "I'm a big kid now." No younger sibling has arrived. No one seems to have told them to say this. Yet from that day, they begin to refer to themselves a little differently.
Then, the same week, they want you to brush their teeth. At drop-off, they demand to be carried. Progress and regression, alternating without obvious pattern.
Ages 5–6 mark a period when children begin to describe "who I am" with more distinct outlines than before. It is a turning point in a long developmental line that began with recognizing oneself in a mirror as an infant. This article traces that line through the classical research, to understand what it means for a child's self-concept to take shape.