In order to understand the child’s needs, primarily we must be acquainted with their nature and origin.
Life Needs
Man’s behavior is caused by aspirations that are deeply integrated into the structure of his personality. They are called life needs.
Life needs are many, they are different, changing along with:
- Maturation
- Aging
- Raising the personal standards of living
- Progress of the civilization
- Progress of the culture
- Constant work to improve own psychological state
Psychological and Physiological Needs in Life
Life needs can be reduced to a single basic need that, from the very birth, is integrated into human nature and acts with such a force that even the developed consciousness cannot oppose it.
That is the need expressed through the drive for self-preservation. It occurs in all areas of life as two types of needs:
- Psychological
- Physiological
Physiological needs arise as a need for:
- Air
- Water
- Food
- Heat
- Hygiene
- Protection against extreme weather conditions
- Satisfying sexuality
The Instinct for Sustaining Life and Survival after Birth
The instinct for sustaining life and survival is the first physiological manifestation of biological needs that we see in a child immediately after birth. The newborn feeds by urges, when it is sated, it sleeps, which is the result of a pleasant feeling, and cries, because of the unpleasant feeling caused by the hunger.
Psychological Needs as a Need of Self-Esteem and Self-Respect
Satisfying the biological needs of a child is actually the care provided by adults from his surroundings – most often parents. The needs are the way in which the child first comes into contact with the people around it. Parents, for the first time, express their emotions towards it, and the child acquires the first experiences of the outside world.
Each of their successful accomplishments brings with them a sense of comfort while long-standing inability causes a feeling of dissatisfaction.
Psychological needs arise as a need for:
- Self-actualization
- Self-esteem
- Belongingness
Aspiration for Self-Actualization
In addition to physiological needs, there is a psychological need for pleasure in the form of aspiration for self-actualization. It is a man’s need to feel the values of his personality, to receive some kind of recognition as an individual, and to feel useful in the environment. Real self-actualization is experienced through the achievement of life successes, that fulfill a person with an intimate sense of satisfaction and happiness.
