SUMMARY :
Sexuality in childhood has been largely overlooked in studies of both human
sexuality and childhood development, especially as regards its behavioural manifestations.
In this work we offer a review of the few investigations that have been carried
out on prepuberal sexuality and comment the results of our own studies. The
latter were three investigations in which we used three parallel sources of
information concerning the sexuality of children younger than 11 years of age,
the sources being the parents, teachers, and adolescents and young adults. The
results confirm the notion that the sexuality of young children is rich and
varied, is expressed in many different types of behaviour, and is based on different
motivations.