 Dear students, in this module we are going to discuss an important phase of socialization process that begins from birth up to the age of 12 years. So childhood is a critical period for socialization as children learn many important skills, values, attitudes and practices that will shape their lives as adults. So this is the period where all the foundations are laid for your upbringing and for your future learning. In Pakistan childhood is often heavily influenced by the family and community values including the strong emphasis on respect for the elders, having distinctive gender roles and incorporating or inculcating different religious values. So socialization during childhood is primarily facilitated by the family institution and then later on by the schools and peer group, which provide children with a variety of experiences and opportunities for learning. So in childhood, as children grow up, the number of socialization agents increases. So in childhood, the family institution is involved and then when the child starts going to school at the age of 4 or 5 or 6, the horizon expands and this is a crucial stage because the basic structures of learning are developing in this period, especially language structures. If the child does not learn any language at this age, then it becomes very difficult for him to learn any kind of language in his later life. So this becomes a very crucial stage for the learning. Children's experiences during childhood can vary widely depending on their family background, cultural status and cultural context. So your family background, your cultural context and your environment plays a very important role. For example, in rural areas, the child's health will be different from the children in urban areas. Similarly, we see that different ethnicities have a peculiar culture of socializing their kids and childhood socialization can have a profound impact on an individual's later development, including the personality building, cognitive abilities and social relationships. So generally, these things in childhood, which are part of our socialization, in our later life, our personality development is very dependent on these things and all of our social relationships, our ability to construct those social relationships is also heavily affected during this life stage. So the experiences of childhood is not universal and can vary widely across different cultures and historical context. Today, if we look at the age of 12, then it is usually the school going age and in this age, we are very protective of our children. But if you look at it across time and space, then there are many societies in which 12 years of childhood is considered very mature and maybe that age is considered where the responsibilities of the family can also be considered. So it depends on which cultural context you are in and which historical context you are in, because of which our socialization patterns change.