Summary    

      Taking recent research on the development of sexual
      orientation as their point of departure, McClintock and Herdt
      go on to demonstrate that the early first occurrence of sexual
      attraction, reported to occur on the average at about ten
      years of age, cannot be triggered by the maturation of the
      gonadal glands, gonadarche, usually conflated with puberty.
      Although it has in the past not be associated with sexual
      development, the maturation of the adrenal glands which occurs
      in middle childhood (adrenarche), could very well account for
      an awakening of sexual attraction. A new look onto the child's
      sexual development follows, which proceeds in stages.