Describe the development of self-control, emphasizing the concepts of compliance and delay of gratification

What will be an ideal response?

To behave in a self-controlled fashion, children must think of themselves as separate, autonomous beings who can direct their own actions. And they must have the representational and memory capacities to recall a caregiver's directive and apply it to their own behavior. As these capacities emerge between 12 and 18 months, toddlers first become capable of compliance. They show clear awareness of caregivers' wishes and expectations and can obey simple requests and commands. For most children, assertiveness and opposition occur alongside compliance with an eager, willing spirit, which suggests that the child is beginning to adopt the adult's directives as his own. Compliance quickly leads to toddlers' first conscience-like verbalizations. Researchers often study self-control by giving children tasks that require delay of gratification—waiting for an appropriate time and place to engage in a tempting act. Between ages 1½ and 3, children show an increasing capacity to wait before eating a treat, opening a present, or playing with a toy. Children who are advanced in development of attention and language tend to be better at delaying gratification. These findings help explain why girls are typically more self-controlled than boys.
Like effortful control in general, young children's capacity to delay gratification is influenced by both biologically based temperament and quality of caregiving. Inhibited children find it easier to wait than angry, irritable children do. But toddlers who experience parental warmth and simple (as opposed to lengthy, detailed) statements that patiently redirect their behavior are more likely to be cooperative and resist temptation. Such parenting—which encourages and models patient, nonimpulsive behavior—is particularly important for temperamentally reactive children.