Children are essentially egocentric at birth - the world literally revolves around them, at their beck and call, and other things in that world, including living things, do not exist except as an extension of themselves. This egocentricity gradually evolves into the adult who is capable of empathy, perspective-taking, and consequential (cause-effect) reasoning and planning.Children are emotionally immature - they have no control over their emotions, they have unreasonable expectations that the world revolves around their feelings, they want immediate gratification without thinking about the longer term negative consequences...they become more mature with time, but some less so than others.
Children are essentially egocentric at birth - the world literally revolves around them, at their beck and call, and other things in that world, including living things, do not exist except as an extension of themselves. This egocentricity gradually evolves into the adult who is capable of empathy, perspective-taking, and consequential (cause-effect) reasoning and planning.Children are emotionally immature - they have no control over their emotions, they have unreasonable expectations that the world revolves around their feelings, they want immediate gratification without thinking about the longer term negative consequences...they become more mature with time, but some less so than others.