Thread by @LResisters

So good evening, this is Katie Alcock, not a regular tweeter here but I thought that people might be interested in the videos I used in my talk last night.
Here's James, showing what 3 year olds think is the difference between boys and girls

At this age and until quite a bit older children think that appearance and reality are equivalent and if one changes the other does - in other areas as well as in individual's sex. This 4 year old thinks the real contents of the pot are evident to others.

Thankfully children get over this though some not before 8 or 9. Knowing about biology helps (i.e. who has what genitals). The 4yo doesn't understand that sex is constant. The 9 yo is struggling not to say "well doh"

But during this phase children are saying they want to wear clothes associated with the opposite sex and OF COURSE they think this makes them BE the opposite sex.

I had a question at the end about the clash between the DSM5 diagnostic criteria and these well-replicated findings on sex/gender constancy.
I answered in relation to psychiatrists. These medical doctors rarely have a degree in straight Psychology

Typical child development isn't much taught to medical students (in fact I was one briefly). A psychiatrist with an interest in autism may well educate themselves on all the current theories, and a delay in the ability to distinguish between appearance and reality is one facet.

But (though I don't know all about psychiatrist training) you don't always get every relevant finding brought up even in straight psychology degrees - we simply know too much about how children think to fit it all in! /KA