ird years of life. It is a period of immense change when a child moves from being completely helpless to gaining coordination & control over muscles, independent movement, more refined communication skills and a widening of the child's world towards independence & autonomy.
             1It is at this stage that the child begins acquire attitudes towards itself and others in respect of doing, making & acting which will be reinforced within the family in later childhood, adolescence, supported or challenged at school and become the basis for which learning, work and relationships with authority are faced and worked with in adult life.
             In Freudian psychoanalytic theory this period in a child's psychosexual development is one in which the child's main concerns are with the processes of defecation. 2 For the first time in a child's life s/he encounters external restrictions on its wish to defecate where and when it pleases as parents try to potty train. This is a crucial time for a child to learn to earn praise and approval as for the first time love from parents is no longer unconditional but dependent on what the child does. The first or oral stage of development is very much about "being" where as the anal stage is much more about doing. During the anal stage the child experiences its parents as authority figures - i.e The contents of the bowels have important meaning for the child and are treated as part of the child's own body and to the child represent a gift. The desire to present this gift demonstrates a child's compliance with his/her environment and by wit
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