Primera Infancia

I- Introduction:
The infancy is generally located between the first 5 years of life. It is the most important stage. Here is when people start to develop, to create their own identity being influenced by the outside world. This development is extremely important, for it going to influence the child for the rest of his life. The child passes from being a defenceless creature, which needs from thecare of adults, which will feed and keep an eye on them, to an almost perfect human being, able to speak, act, feel and, somehow, defend himself from the world around. The child grows not only in intelligence, but also physically. A normal child tends to grow approximately 20 inches per year, although this speed is reduced when they reach one year. They develop new capacities, as for example theanswer to stimuli, the appearance of new highlights, of intelligence, of language as a new way of communication, and many other issues.
The infancy is a period of childhood, and yet it can be divided into two distinct stages. On one side, there is the first infancy, from the 18 months to 3 years and on the other hand the second infancy, from 3 to 6 years. For the moment, let’s focus on the firstinfancy. This is a crucial phase of a child. (Griffa & Moreno, 2001) described this new child as “niño deambulador” (1). The child becomes, suddenly, independent. It not anymore so closed to his mother or father, now it is able to move on his own, to explore his world around and learn from it. Even some infants enter in a crisis with her mom, being some indifferent, for they feel they does notneed her. The boy is on a stage of discovering, going into the limits, so the presence and authority of parents is really important for the child´s future behaviour.
During this instance the child develops new capacities. These are the capacity of imitating different models as his/her father or mother, the capacity of creating mental images, the capacity of communicate through drawing, and veryimportant, and which is what we are going to concentrate in the rest of the monograph, to develop the language and understand the game as a symbol of expression.

(1) Toddler boy- in reference to the independence the infant start to develop.

II- Body:
Games:
The practice of games during the first infancy is very important. It is key for their physical and mental development. Thegame is something proper of this stage. Generally, infants play but while playing they are really imitating a model of their life. An example may be those little girls which play with dolls, feeding them, sleeping them, and imitating what her mom does with her. Sometimes, child gets so interpenetrated on their game that may forget their own identification. To play generate pleasure, it is theirown way of expressing before language.
Many authors tried to explain the origin and why children play games, and they concluded that there are four main theories of games. First of all, the theory of energy excess suggest that humans are active and energetic, and so child, which do not work or study, have to find a way of expelling energy : through games. Moreover, the theory of relaxation claimsthat games are a tool to relax children. Usually humans are constantly in activity, and those wear them out. So they find new activities which will relax them. For kids, the games are a proper way of, at someway relax them but on the other hand also help them to waste energy. Thirdly, the theory of recap proposes that infants realize all the activities that our ancestors had once done. Forexample, in an animal stage kids jump and climb, but later in an agricultural stage they play with sand and plants, followed by the tribal stage where they will learn to play collectively. Finally, the pre-exercise theory says that the games are of extreme importance on the development of child. They are like a pre-exercise, or a preparation for the future. All those physical games, as running or...