Body functionality is the awareness of the body’s abilities and processes and is a central facet of positive body image (Wood-Barcalow et al., 2024). Body functionality is a multi-faceted concept that describes everything the body can do, across seven domains (see further below). The research to date has thus examined the role of body appreciation and body image in adults but understanding how young children appreciate what their bodies can do—a body image principle known as body functionality appreciation—is an important step in understanding children’s body image. A new study takes that step by focusing on small children to discern their level of awareness and appreciation for their bodily functioning (Craddock et al., 2025).
The study questioned 301 children between the ages of four and six at a primary school in the United Kingdom about how they viewed their bodies. The ethnicity profile was:
White 223
Black 64
Multiple Groups 60
Asian 34
Body appreciation was measured using two items: “Do you love your body?” and “Do you think your body is amazing?”
The 7 Realms of Body Functionality
The experience of body functionality has been parsed out into seven distinct areas: physical experience, creative expression, daily self-care, communication, sensing and sensations, internal processes, and cognitive functioning. The children in the study all responded with their own examples of their experiences of each of these seven areas.
Physical Capacities such as specific and general body movements:
“Spin”, “jump”, “hop”, “stomp”, “circle arms”, “hands are amazing to grab”, “climb a rock”, “stretch as high as I can”, “stand straight”, “walk with legs”, “cartwheel”, “ride a bike because of my arms and legs”, “basketball”, “karate”, “throw a ball”, “slide down poles”.
Creative Activities such as art, dancing, play, and music:
“Play games”, “play floor is lava”, “playing Spiderman”, “be like a cat”, “make funny faces”, “ballet”, “singing”, “make a picture”, “cut stuff out”, “painting”.
Daily Self-Care Routine such as eating, relaxing, getting dressed:
“Amazing at eating,” “cream yourself,” “drink water,” “have bath,” “have a break,” “put clothes on,” “put shoes on,” “I can relax on the sofa,” “rest,” “sleeping”.
Communicating With Others such as cuddling, helping out, sharing, playing, talking, and gesturing:
“Hug mummy and daddy,” “hold hands,” “help people,” “taking care of animals,” “play with friends,” “talk with mouth,” “say stuff,” “laugh,” “smile,” “waving,” “clap.”
The Senses and Sensations including emotions:
“Eyes are amazing because I can see,” “fingers to touch,” “tongue tastes things,” “smelling things.”
Internal Processes such as breathing, digesting, growing, heart beating:
“Body keeps me alive,” “heart pumps,” “breathe,” “go to the toilet,” “blink,” “sneeze,” “get big and strong,” “hair is amazing because it grows.”
Cognitive Abilities such thinking, reading, and writing:
“Reading words at school,” “doing detective work,” “I can think with my brain,” “it helps you think of things and make the right decisions,” “doing all sorts of maths.”
Interpreting the Children’s Comments
Overall, the children in the study were quite specific about what they see as the amazing functions of their bodies. Researchers interpreted the responses about the amazing things of which children were aware by observing that children considered different body parts when describing what they found amazing. Older children gave significantly higher functionality appreciation comments than those in the younger year group. No gender differences were found, which only makes sense as children at this age are more similar than different.
Closing Thoughts
Children starting in infancy seem to go through a distinct number of stages in forming their body knowledge:
- Experiencing a sense of embodied self-unity.
- Learning how to control the body
- Mastering basic movements… eye tracking, rolling over, grasping, sitting, standing, walking, eating, sphincter control, etc.
- Experimenting with the body to see what works and what does not
- Developing physical skills… sitting, standing, walking, running.
- Learning about the body as an abstract concept (Slaughter, Heron-Delaney, & Christie, 2012).
The last stage—learning that the body is a stable whole made up of specific parts begins with the notion of anatomical constancy (body parts do not change) which then leads to the understanding the body is stable, cohesive, and continuous (Feiner, 1987). The five to ten-year-old period is marked by a growing vocabulary of the body parts and their functioning. Typically, children at this age tend to know more about the face than the rest of the body and that they are more aware of body parts associated with body movements and actions than other parts (Auclair, & Jambaqué, 2015).
The Craddock study aimed to explore how young children describe what they appreciate about their body functionality. This is interesting on several counts. First, past research into children has found poor anatomic knowledge and more of a mystical interpretation of their body’s functioning. These children seem to be more sophisticated in their thinking while still giving childlike responses. Insights from this preliminary work can aid the development and evaluation of positive body image interventions for young children.
Paul Shane, Ph.D., LMT
Director, Academic Content
References
Alleva, J. & Tylka, T. L. (2021). Body functionality: A review of the literature. Body Image 36, p. 149–171, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2020.11.006.
Alleva, J., Tylka, T., & Van Diest, A. (2017). The Functionality Appreciation Scale (FAS): Development and psychometric evaluation in US community women and men. Body Image 23, p. 28–44, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2017.07.008.
Auclair, L. & Jambaqué, I. (2015). Lexical-semantic body knowledge in 5-to-11-year-old children: How spatial body representation influences body semantics. Child Neuropsychology 21(4), p. 451-464.
Craddock, N., Smith, H., Garbett, K., & Alleva, J. (2025). Functionality appreciation in young children. Body Image 52, 101845, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2024.101845.
Feiner, K. (1987). Development of the concept of anatomical constancy: Part 1. Psychoanalytic Psychology 4(4), p. 343-354.
Slaughter, V., Heron-Delaney, M., & Christie, T. (2012). Developing expertise in body perception. In V. Slaughter & C. Brownell (Eds.), Early Development of Body Representations, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, pp. 81-92.
Wood-Barcalow, N., Alleva, J., & Tylka, T. (2024). Revisiting positive body image to demonstrate how body neutrality is not new. Body Image 50, 101741, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2024.101741.