Stages Leading to Fire setting in Children - Essay Example

Stages Leading to Fire setting in Children Introduction Fire Setting is the intentional acts designed to produce a commotion or to produce damage or harm. The act is common among the children who set fires on a regular basis despite receiving warnings from adults. Psychologists have expressed considerable interests towards the child fire setters by coming up with the stages leading to the fire setting. According to Bartol and Bartol (2014), the developmental stages are in three categories comprising of fire interest, fire play and fire setting.

This implies that children like to experiment with fire due to fascination as they develop. The first step is the fire interest that arises due to fascination in the early years of development. The child would try to set fires at homes every day, making this a habit as they discover new tricks. It is evident that fire fascination starts at age three with almost one in every five children setting fires. In this regard, parents need to be cautious of the harmful situations that might cause damage or harm to the child and the nearby environment (Bartol & Bartol, 2014).

The other phrase is the experimentation that occurs when the child gets older, normally between the ages of five and nine. In this level, the child investigates on how a fire starts and how it burns. However, the chances of the child being burnt or injured are common because of their vulnerability to the risks of fire (Bartol & Bartol, 2014). This is because of their inexperience to use or extinguish fire if it flares out of control. The age of ten years exposes children to the dangers of fire and they now understand its consequences.

The fire setting stage is determined if a child continues to experiment upon passing the age of ten years. They now set fire with the intention to destroy something, as a form of pleasure and as a communicative channel to draw awareness to themselves and their alleged troubles. Fire experts indicate that children who still engage in fire setting after the age of ten years normally show poor social skills (Bartol & Bartol, 2014). They also indicate that these children exhibit inadequate social competence and poor impulse control compared to their peers.

It is also apparent that persistent fire setters are likely to have attention deficit/hyperactivity illness and their peers tend to ignore their company. The children who continue to extend the habit of fire setting beyond the fascination and experimentation stage need guidance and relationship sessions (Bartol & Bartol, 2014). Conclusion Fire setting is an intentional habit of playing with fire with the full knowledge of its consequences and is common among the younger children. This takes place in different phases, comprising of fascination, experimentation and fire setting.

Fascination phase is the interest of children to play with fire due to excitements and take place between the ages of three to five years old. This habit leads to the next stage of experimentation in which the children try to discover ways of lighting fires. Experimentation stage occurs between the ages of five and nine years and bears risky consequences due to inexperience to extinguish fire. After the experimentation stage, at the age of ten years, a child will start fire setting for pleasure, attention seeking or to solve perceived problems.

Reference Bartol, C. R., & Bartol, A. M. (2014). Criminal Behavior; A Psychosocial Approach (10th ed). Upper Saddle River, N.J: Pearson Education.