Self-esteem is generally defined as ‘good opinion of one’s own character and abilities’. This refers to a positive characteristic about thinking that someone or something is important or valuing that person or thing. Sheslow breaks the two words, self and esteem further. By “self” he means how much value a person has of him/her self and, “esteem” he refers to how a person thinks about the importance he or she has of his/her own abilities. In other words, it may be a favorable opinion, a regard or a way to see oneself and how a particular individual feels about his/her own achievements. This may be influenced by one’s nature, special qualities, personality, contextual realities, opportunities and challenges in a real life situation.

Self-esteem is greatly determined and influenced by development and growth. Each child has an individual pattern and timing of growth and development as well as an individual style of learning. Children begin to recognize themselves as early as eighteen months, in fact as soon as they see their face in the mirror; they know who they are, what they look like, being egocentric they also recognize their identity; that the whole world at home/school revolves around them. Hence, self-recognition lets young children think about their self-understanding and develop their self-recognition. They know that they are different physically but yet learn very early in life that others may have similar characteristics and abilities to themselves. For example, everyone has two eyes and hands.

Children usually become stubborn during the second and third year due to increasing self-awareness. During the following years, they become less egocentric and learn to play with other children. It is during this time that they learn to recognize that others also have needs such as theirs and others’ matter too besides themselves. Three to five year old children usually talk about their physical appearance, hobbies and possessions. Personal family experiences and cultural backgrounds help a child to understand his or her own social identity. Young children develop different self-help and coping strategies, to become self-sufficient at dressing, feeding and shoe tying. They also learn to manage coping with difficult situations that arise in the classroom such as avoiding fights and winning friends. At five years, children acquire self-help skills and are ready to go to school. For acquiring these skills they need a longer attention span, memory for a complex series of hand movements and the skilfulness to perform them. They also begin to develop a morality. They learn values of honesty, truth, integrity, morals and a few ethical principles such as genuine, righteous ways and fair means for play or games. Therefore, when parents and teachers of young children talk about the need for good self-esteem, they usually mean that children should have "good feelings" about themselves. With young children, self-esteem refers to the extent to which they expect to be accepted and valued by adults and peers who are important to them.