Children as young as 4 or 5 have fantasies with erotic content, and children between the ages of 6 and 10 can become physically aroused by thinking about these fantasies (Langfeldt, 1981a). Children are sometimes fearful of their fantasies, worrying that thinking about certain acts would lead them to actually perform them (Langfeldt, 1981b). As children grow older, their fantasies have more and more erotic content and are more often used during masturbation.
Masturbation
Generally, by the end of this time period, most children have the ability to stimulate themselves to orgasm. A consistent finding about childhood and adolescent masturbation is that boys masturbate more than girls (boys about twice a week, girls about once a month) and that boys reach orgasm more frequently (I. M. Schwartz, 1999; Sorenson, 1973). Boys often learn masturbation from each other and sometimes masturbate in groups, whereas girls often discover masturbation by accident.
Boys and girls masturbate a variety of different ways. Boys masturbate manually or by rubbing their penis against soft objects like their bedsheets or stuffed animals. Girls also masturbate manually by pelvic rubbing and thrusting; they may also put objects such as pillows between their legs. Many girls experience pleasure and even or-
gasm by rhythmically rubbing their legs together. Some children find creative ways to masturbate:
I used to love to take “rides” on the washing machine during the wash and rinse cycles, when the whole machine was whirring. I don’t know if my parents ever realized it—I’m sure they thought I was pretending to ride a horsey— but the vibrations of the machine were some of my earliest sexual feelings. (Author’s files)